"that other less fortunate young mothers should go out and get multigenerational families to help them out because it's not the government's responsibility."

Of course it's not the government's responsibility. When it's the government's responsibility, you get the Octomom quagmires.

My heart ached for Bristol ... not least because her mother is a ghoul.

She came into the interview like a specter of doom.

You're setting up some weird mother/daughter spectacle when it apparently was just this "average" teenager (as you repeatedly emphasize, that must somehow warm the cockles of your heart) that was raked over the coals in the national media a few months ago for making the decision to keep her baby, and she is showing up to remind people, that hey, you too can get yourself into this situation so be forewarned. It's not ideal, but that is the choice she made. Your little article here berating her and her mom is small-minded and really just mean-spirited above all else.

Bristol made more sense in 5 minutes than her mother made in 5 months.

I appreciate Ms. Traister's presentation of the Bristol Palin interview. Ms. Palin was never derided, but her message was made oh so very clear.

I don't even understand abstinence only education or the message of abstinence for that matter. Teenagers have sex. They have always had sex. They always will have sex. That is the way of the world. Whether we chose to acknowledge that fact as a society or not does not change in any way the amount of sex teenagers have. It definitely changes the consequences, but not the actions.

Like many other people in the United States I believe in sex education that is far reaching and a steady supply of birth control for teenagers. I wish that my teaching of sex education at home was reinforced at schools, but that is not the world in which I live. The world in which I live is in Texas, where even sane people seem to take a strange turn when it comes to sex.

Bristol Palin is an unfortunate spokesperson for birth control, but there she sits. I applaud her strength to sit in this interview and tell her truth. It is a powerful truth that we all should hear and pay attention to. I hope that Bristol can make a break from her stifling mama to speak her own truth more clearly and consistently and I hope that she continues to find her voice in this messed up situation.

Thank you for a heartening article.

Gee, it just seemed like a nice interview with a nice person to me. Bristol would never have become this particular sort of 'public figure' had the Atlantic and Washington Post not set off a feeding frenzy prior to the convention, coupled with hysterical calls for the "Eagleton option" and Palin's removal from the ticket even before she spoke, on account of having a pregnant teenage daughter. The media should have shopped for ashes and sackcloth while the Palins headed off to Nieman Marcus -- proudly spending the money volunteers like me gladly gave them. The whole family looked great then, and still look great now - with or without haute expense. Healthy, vibrant, heartfelt loving people. And by the way, the star of the whole interview was the little baby boy. Reproductive choice, my foot. This story is about life.

Whether it was just the usual teenage girl resentment or a deep-seated anger at being paraded around like a pony with her family for God-knows how many years, I wasn't sure. But her refusal to discuss contraception, her desire to help other girls avoid the situation she's found herself in, her firm, repeated stance that ABSTINENCE ONLY DOESN'T WORK, is in extreme disagreement to all her Mother's policies. And it looks like her mother is pretty angry with her daughter as well - "You want this joy?" Ouch. Palin is such a control freak over her own message that she ran rough shod over her daughter's interview, over her daughter's views. I can understand why Bristol was so afraid to tell her Mom. I would have texted her myself.I'm kind of curious to see what happened after the announcement.

It's okay, Bristol, some day you'll have your own house with your own money, far away from your Mom's influence. Just hang on until the scenery changes.

this is a brilliant peice of critical writing.

That's how Bristol came across. She's not *sorry* that it happened, but in hindsight she can see the situation is less than ideal. She loves her son, but she also mourns the life she planned on having; it's gone forever. She's lost a great deal, but she's also gained a great deal. She's vulnerable and halting, but she's only 18. I'm inclined to cut the poor girl some slack; she's still processing the changes in her life.

I didn't read Traister as criticizing her, but I do read Traister as using her to make a political point at the expense of her mother. While Bristol is technically "fair game", I think the last thing Bristol wanted was to become some kind of spokesperson for teen pregnancy and motherhood.

The writer is as bad as she makes out Greta Van Susteren and Sarah Palin to be.

Maybe you should have watched AND listened to the interview a second time (or taken accurate notes) before you wrote this insulting (stammers?), anti-grandma Palin and distorted opinion.

...but that's my opinion

I don't know why some of these other letter writers are so critical, but I thought this was a heart-felt, well-written article.

Just read the headline

and then

read the 18th word to the last of the 1st sentence.

But this is one of your best. Beautifully, poignantly put.

By the way to the naysayers - did you even *read* the article? Because it seems to me that you came to it with a preconceived expectation of what you would find, and distorted your own perception until lit fit with what you expected.

This interview fits in with something disturbing I noticed about Palin's interactions with Piper during her last interview with Van Susteren. (Disclaimer: I haven't watched it recently, so some of the details of my recollection may be a bit off.) VS had just asked Piper about how she felt doing all of her campaign travels. Piper replied that she missed her friends very much, and seemed to dislike the extent to which she had fallen behind on her schoolwork. VS asked her if it had been fun. Piper clearly hesitated and demurred before finally answering yes. VS asked her if she would want to do it all again in four years. Piper said nothing. VS repeated the question. Piper still said nothing. Palin finally jumped in and said something like, "don't you want to do it all again, Sister? Wouldn't you want to have all that fun again?" Piper finally answered with another "yes," which was accompanied by a very weak, halfhearted smile and a nervous giggle.

As a well-worn veteran of brainwashing at the hands of narcissistic parents, I can definitely say that I know it when I see it. And it broke my heart.