The Temptation of Sarah Palin

She has become a stereotypical figure--loved or reviled, depending on the beholder's politics--but the other day, for a brief moment, Sarah Palin let herself be seen as a human being with complicated emotions.

The Alaska governor made news by telling a right-to-life meeting that, after learning of abnormalities in the child she was bearing last year, she had for "a fleeting moment" considered abortion.

Palin was emphasizing that she had decided to have the baby, but her description of the inner turmoil in making up her mind had none of the usual pit-bull-with-lipstick comedy of her public persona.

The results of the amniocentesis, she said, "blew me away, rocked my world" and helped her understand "the complexities of what a woman goes through."

Palin went on to explain that no one, not even her husband knew ("I was out-state, nobody knows") and it would have been "easy to make it all go away, take care of it."

The disclosure of such feelings answers a pathologist's question of why, given her convictions, Palin would have undergone amniocentesis, in which "more normal fetuses would be aborted by the procedure than would abnormal ones be detected."

Clearly, as a 44-year-old career woman with four children, Palin was worried about the pregnancy--as most people in her position would be--and it is touching to hear her describe the inner turmoil over it in human terms, even if only to make a political point.

By the end of this excursion into reality, the governor was back to her usual breeziness, telling the audience she had thought, "I was old. Very funny, God. My name is Sarah, but my husband is not Abraham."

But it was nice to see, if only for "a fleeting moment," a real person behind the improbable public figure.

Shotgun Wedding Heard Around the World

In the final image of the Republican convention, with all the McCains and Palins on the stage waving to the crowd and the cameras, the most fascinating figure was the 18-year-old stud muffin named Levi Johnston who was up there based on the accomplishment of having knocked up his high-school girlfriend.

Young Levi's bemused demeanor recalls the hero of Preston Sturges' classic World War II movie, "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," a zany comedy about the public consequences of an unintended pregnancy that somehow ended well for all concerned.

The 21s century version has a happy ending, too. MTV, People and Us Magazine report that wedding bells will be ringing soon, but the whole world knows that.

Pregnant Pause in the Palin Story

From CNN: "Bristol Palin, the 17 year old daughter of Sarah Palin, is pregnant and will keep the baby and marry the father, a senior McCain aide confirmed to CNN Monday.

"McCain was aware of Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before he chose her mother for his running mate, the aide said."

So now a teenager's reproductive melodrama enters the presidential campaign, and the sounds of sanctimony on both sides will reach decibel level. A statement by the Palin family, exalted by the McCain campaign for family values, reads:

“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.”

This new development will sorely test that "tradition," most recently reflected in the MSNBC suspension of correspondent David Shuster for musing on air about the Clinton campaign, "Doesn't it seem as if Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?"

The Sexual Spin Machines will be working overtime in the Twin Cities, much to the chagrin of those on both sides who believe that private behavior, particularly of minors, is no business of the public's, regardless of who profits politically from it.

Fetal Food Preferences

You are what your pregnant mother ate. Tastes are shaped in the womb, according to the latest news from the world of science, one more opportunity to create designer babies and another issue for psychotherapists with patients who blame their mothers for everything.

A new study at the Monell Chemical Senses Research Institute in Philadelphia finds flavors from mothers' diet are transmitted through amniotic fluid and babies learn to like a food's taste when mothers eat it on a regular basis.

This new leap forward suggests that a healthy diet during pregnancy can insure children who like broccoli, spinach and carrots rather than junk food.

Talk about eating for two: Experiments found that women who ingested large quantities of carrot juice or raw fruit had children with more of a taste for carrots and fruit than those of women who didn't.

Even after birth, there is still time to influence taste buds, another study showed. When new mothers who were breast-feeding started eating green beans, their children acquired a taste for them.

Maybe so, but I have anecdotal evidence to the contrary: A pre-teen twin I know has become a self-made vegetarian while his brother eats roast beef every chance he gets. Can a mother-to-be send gastronomic mixed signals?