"Trailblazer: An Intimate Biography of Sarah Palin", Chapter Thirteen. Now things begin to get interesting.

This is the chapter that takes on the whole baby Trig pregnancy and birth, which is possibly the most scrutinized and criticized event in the life of Sarah Palin.

As I read through this chapter I was almost immediately struck by things that just did not seem to add up. Some of this may be because I have the luxury of hindsight, or that I have already heard differing accounts of some of these events, but I do believe that some simply do not make sense no matter what prism you view them from.

For instance we have this sentence on the second page of chapter 13.

Sarah kept mum about the pregnancy until October, Todd had figured it out but was discreet enough not to say a word. (Chapter 13, pg. 181)

Now that whole sentence simply does not sit right with me. What kind of a relationship do Todd and Sarah have where he believes she may be pregnant with his fifth child but is reticent to mention it to her, and she knows she is pregnant with a baby but does not feel it necessary to clue her husband of twenty years in on the life altering news? I have never heard of such a thing.

Unless your marriage is in serious trouble, or you are having an affair, why wouldn't you tell your husband as soon as you began to suspect that you were having a child?

No that sentence just does not compute for me.

And things do not get much easier to swallow as the chapter moves forward.

For the next five months, Todd and Sarah kept the pregnancy a secret. Any thoughts of breaking the news early to their kids were scuttled when Sarah learned her baby had Down Syndrome after having amniocentesis at thirteen weeks. (This is different then the four month timeline she identifies in this interview. Only a three week difference but still something most mothers do not get confused about.) Todd was away working when her family doctor, Cathy Baldwin-Johnsons, called with the news. Sarah drove to Johnson's office, discussed the implications , and received some reading materials on the disorder. Then she headed home to ponder her fate. (pg. 181)

Okay now the part of this paragraph that puzzles me, is why did the possibility that Trig may have Down Syndrome impact whether the children should be told or not? As far as I can tell a Down Syndrome child is not more likely to suffer a fatal problem in utero, so Trig was still coming, Down's baby or not. The only reason that makes any sense to me (if you accept that he is indeed Sarah's child) is that pro-life Sarah was not sure she was keeping the child. That is after all one of the choices presented to mothers who learn they are having a child with this diagnosis, but how could somebody who protested outside women's health clinics ever even consider such a thing? And if not, then why not tell your children they were about to have a baby brother or sister?

And, as if on cue, Bristol Palin now enters stage left.

When the legislative session got under way after Christmas, Sarah moved to Juneau, this time taking Piper and Willow. Todd stayed back home working on the slope and training for the Iron Dog. Bristol withdrew from Wasilla High and moved to Anchorage to live with her aunt and uncle, Heather and Kurt Bruce, and their three children. She finished the year at West High an held down two part-time jobs serving lattes at espresso shops. "I really think she's going to run her own business someday," Heather Bruce said. (pg. 182)

Heather explained the move was convenient in many ways. Bristol was closer to the airport, so she could get on a plane to Juneau to see her mother or visit her at the governor's Anchorage office when Sarah was in town. (pg. 183)

Okay now the rumor swirling around Brtistol's attendance at West High (which started well before Sarah announced that she was pregnant with Trig) was that she only attended classes there for about a month. The reason given for her being out of school at the time was that she had infectious mononucleosis (Which then raises the question as to how she got pregnant with little Tripp at that time if she was that sick). We have no way of knowing one way or the other how much of this is factual because obviously juvenile school records are confidential.

The other thing about this section of the book that does not add up is the contention that Bristol lived with her aunt because it was closer to the airport and therefore easier for her to fly out to Juneau to see dear old mom. But according the the children's travel expenses Bristol did not fly ANYWHERE from December 2007 to June 2008, with the exception of a trip to Fairbanks in February to see her father cross the finish after the Iron Dog snowmachine race (There is some controversy over whether she was actually there or not as well.). The only other Bristol Palin sighting during this time period is when she had a traffic accident in Wasilla on February 8, 2008. (Interestingly enough it was right outside of Family Medicine of Alaska. Intriguing no?)

So then the question is why did Bristol move to Anchorage?

Even her Wasilla principal could not answer that question. (He said Bristol inexplicably transferred to an Anchorage high school midyear, leaving Levi behind. "I never heard the story why," he said.) She was not yet sick with Mono, and according to her mom and the McCain campaign she was not yet pregnant, so why transfer schools? No good answer has ever been provided, leaving us with speculation.

Time for Sarah to step in.

A few minutes before leaving work on March 5, Sarah held a press conference in her Juneau office and finally announced her pregnancy. She said. "Expect a new member of the first family," and then she headed out to a reception at the Baranof Hotel with her family to dine on king crab. reporters stood there in disbelief. In fact, Sarah had to announce the pregnancy in three different ways before anyone knew what she was talking about. "That the pregnancy is so advanced astonished all who heard the news," the Daily News reported, "The governor, a runner who's always trim, simply doesn't look pregnant." Not even her staff was aware until the same day, "I thought it was becoming obvious," Sarah said, "Clothes getting snugger and snugger." (Emphasis mine, pg. 185)

Alright so let's take a look at this paragraph again. Notice that EVERY SINGLE PERSON who was interviewed had exactly the same response. Not ONE OF THEM noticed she was pregnant. Now I have worked with women my entire life, and I have experience with the ticklish issue of noticing that somebody looks pregnant but not wanting to say anything in case I was wrong. But the usual response to finding out, is "I thought you might be", or "I wondered what that glow was about". How rare is it, for EVERYBODY you work with to be surprised? And these were mostly women!

And how many OTHER people saw her and did not know?

Though the baby was due in mid-May, the pregnancy certainly had not slowed her down. She had spent the previous few weeks increasing her national profile; she had traveled to Washington, D.C., for the National Governor's Conference, where she met in privately with John McCain and learned she was on the short list as a running mate... (It is important to note that this section about the meeting with John McCain is the ONLY portion that has been identified as false by Palin Spokesperson Meg Stapleton. Nothing else seems to have concerned them.) (pg. 185)

Okay I am going to take a little Palin break right here. I believe there is enough to digest from this portion of chapter thirteen to keep our minds reeling for the remainder of this day at least.

I will post more tomorrow. You will love this next part as it contains the famous "wild ride" from Texas.

"Fasten your seatbelts! Its going to be a bumpy ride!"