In the wake of the revelation that Sarah Palin's 17 year-old daughter is pregnant, the media monster has already started in, and the villagers are standing by with their torches.

I may not agree with her politics on the whole, but I also don't think that we can fairly judge someone on what their teenaged daughter has chosen to do. I may not agree with Sarah Palin on her politics about global warming and where the polar bears fit into that equation. I may not agree with her love of the NRA, but I certainly can't fault a woman for what her 17 year old daughter has done. Especially since her daughter is apparantly keeping her baby, and keeping her chin up during these exceptionally trying times. Teenage pregnancy is bad enough, but going through it with the eyes of the country watching you has got to be worse.

And the classy part?

"And while his campaign may or may not be hooting and hollering about this story line in private, in public, Barack Obama drew a very firm line on the Palin revelation, noting that if anyone in his campaign was pushing the story forward they would be fired. Bristol Palin's pregnancy, Obama said, "has no relevance to Governor Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president." He also pointed out that his own mother had been 18 when she gave birth to him. "How family deals with issues and teen-age children -- that shouldn't be the topic of our politics," Obama said." (Salon.com)

It's truly a testament to the man's character for him to not only stay out of the Palin witchhunt, but actively discourage it. It would have been nice if his opposition offered him a bit of the same consideration. (The whole reverend business comes to mind, along with the political cartoons that likened Obama to a terrorist.)

That guy runs one classy campaign.