I mean, as compared to the optimal situation you just described. You said both extremes increase it from the middle.

I was just calling it EXPLICIT because that's what Palin calls it. Like kids shouldn't know what genitals even are. Because that's porn and that's gross.

I didn't say they increased it, I said they end up on both ends of the spectrum ... This means that you will find that comprehensive sexual education in the jurisdictions with the highest teen pregnancy rates as well as the lowest teen pregnancy rates, and you will find abstinence only programs in the jurisdictions with the highest teen pregnancy rates as well as the lowest teen pregnancy rates. This implies that education (alone) is not the primary factor in preventing teen pregnancy.

I'd need much more information to decide that it's not one of the most important factors. Besides, it's one of the only factors that can directly influence teens' decisions, and can be legislated.

I'd need statistics in a community before and after changing it one way or the other.

Because I can just assume that the rates would be even higher without sex ed.

Here's what the Republican insiders REALLY think about her...

Transcript:

Chuck Todd: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we'll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We'll find out on your blackberry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin and she will get the chance to show voters she's the right woman for the job Up next, one man who's already convinced and he'll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman.

(cut away)

Peggy Noonan: Yeah.

Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys -- this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it's not gonna work. And --

PN: It's over.

MM: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

CT: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.

PN: Saw Kay this morning.

CT: Yeah, she's never looked comfortable about this --

MM: They're all bummed out.

CT: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

PN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this -- excuse me-- political bullshit about narratives --

CT: Yeah they went to a narrative.

MM: I totally agree.

PN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.

MM: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.

CT: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.

MM: Yeah.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/212920.php

No joke.  I hate Kay Bailey Hutchinson (one of my senators), but she would have been a much better choice than Palin.  She wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as much of a lambasting by the media as well.

Every day that passes I am more and more convinced that Palin was about the worst choice McCain could have made.  He would have been better off trying to get Hillary on his ticket.

McCain Criticizes Media for Doing Its Job

http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/09/angry_amateurs.html

September 3, 2008 2:04
Angry Amateurs
Posted by Joe Klein | Comments (342) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This

The story of the day out here in Minneapolis is the McCain campaign's war against the press. This has been building for some time. Those of us who have criticized the candidate--and especially those of us who enjoyed good relations with McCain in the past--have been subject to off-the-record browbeating and attempted bullying all year. But things have gotten much worse in recent days: there was McCain's rude, bizarre interview with Time Magazine last week. Yesterday, McCain refused to an interview with Larry King, for God's sake, because Campbell Brown had been caught in the commission of journalism on CNN the night before, asking McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds what decisions Sarah Palin had made as commander-in-chief of the Alaska national guard. (There was an answer that the unprepared Bounds didn't have: she had deployed them to fight fires.)

So what's going on here? Two things. McCain is just plain angry at us. By the evidence presented in the utterly revealing Time interview, he's ballistic. This is a politician who needs to see himself as the man on the white horse, boldly traversing a muddy field...any intimations that he's gotten muddied in the process, or has decided to throw mud, are intolerable.

The second thing is more insidious: Steve Schmidt has decided, for tactical reasons, to slime the press. He wants the public to believe that there is an unfair--sexist (you gotta love it)--personal assault going on against Palin and her family. This is a smokescreen, intended to divert attention from the very real and responsible vetting that is taking place in the media--about the substance of Palin's record as mayor and governor. Sure, there are a few outliers--and the tabloid press--who have fixed on baby stories. That was inevitable....the flip side of the personal stories that the McCain team thought would work to their advantage--Palin's moose-hunting and wolf-shooting, and her admirable decision to have a Down Syndrome baby. And yes, when we all fix on the same story, whether it's a hurricane or a little-known politician, a zoo ensues. But the media coverage of the Palin story has been well within the bounds of responsibility. Schmidt is trying to make it seem otherwise, a desperate tactic.

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

^ I think she was the best choice

i just looked through the entire thread and haven't seen anyone mention troopergate.

source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h7VIY5GfDmjy-A5HsGLuHvA0SHtgD92UTSVG0

Palin offers details about Troopergate

By STEVE QUINN – 1 day ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has gone on the offensive trying to blunt negative fallout from the so-called Troopergate investigation. Palin says in a legal filing that she wants the state's personnel board to review the allegations surrounding her firing of the former public safety commissioner.

The legislature already is investigating Palin's firing of Walt Monegan for allegedly failing to dismiss a trooper who went through a messy divorce with Palin's sister before she ran for governor.

Before Palin was named to the GOP ticket, the legislature launched a $100,000 investigation into whether Palin abused her power in firing Monegan.

Earlier this week, Palin's attorney questioned the jurisdiction of the legislative probe, saying the matter belongs before the personnel board.

Sarah Palin has turned politics into a big soup opera. This is better than anything Days of Our Lives could ever throw at us.

Mother hides teens pregnancy, fakes her own. Mother actually was pregnant, but teen is pregnant too. Did she have an affair with her husband's friend? Tries to fire ex-brother in law, but his boss declines. Fires his boss instead.