Well this will keep you occupied for much of the day. Journolist e-mails illustrate how progressive journalists examined, and ultimately passed on, the story of Sarah Palin's fifth pregnancy. Update!

From the Daily Caller:

Kathleen Geier

Aug 30, 2008, 9:13am
Obviously, neither Obama nor any other Democrat should touch this story. At all.

But — and that’s a big but — if it’s true, *of course* it would be an issue. And should be! Forget the issue of whether or not she denied her daughter the choice of ending her pregnancy — that’s not the issue. The issue would be if Palin is lying to the McCain’s people, and voters, and basically the world, by trying to pass off a child as hers, if it really wasn’t. Your kids are as much a part of your basic life story as when and where you were born, who you married, and where you went to school. If she’s trying to pass off a child as her own, when that child is actually her granddaughter — that is a huge freaking deal.

Now, that said, this does sound like a pretty wacky conspiracy theory. If there’s no evidence to it other than the fact that Palin allegedly did not look pregnant, and her daughter was allegedly absent from school, that’s an extremely slim reed to hang a story on.
However, if a reporter investigated this story and came up with compelling evidence that it’s true — such as documents or eyewitness testimony from medical professionals and the like — the media should have no compunctions about running with it.

But it’s such a wild story I seriously doubt there’s much to it. On the other hand, I thought the idea that John Edwards would risk having an affair and a love child in the midst of a campaign for president was preposterous as well. So you never know . . .

Ezra Klein

Aug 30, 2008, 10:15am

Seriously, folks? Best case scenario, what’s your outcome here: Her daughter, hounded by the tabloids, breaks down that it was her child, and her mother heroically took on the burden and welcomed the disabled boy as one of her own? Palin’s relationship with her children — however they may have come to her — strikes me as pretty far out of bounds. By all accounts she’s a wonderful mother, and devoted to her fifth son. Leave this be.

Lindsay Beyerstein

Aug 30, 2008, 11:20am

In the post-Rathergate era, journalists should be on their guard for Republican dirty tricks.
If this story gains traction, regardless of its truth or falsity, the Republicans will take steps to neutralize the meme.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the McCain campaign were to leak doctored evidence for the sole purpose of discrediting it and destroying the journalist who published it. That’s probably what the Killian memos were.

We should also be on guard for “evidence” falling into the lap of an unknown and easily discredited figure. That’s probably what Rove did to neutralize the allegations of cocaine use by George W. Bush, lo these many years ago.

If apparently well-substantiated allegations emerge, we should be alert for the story behind the story, so to speak.

-Lindsay

Just speaking for myself I found these e-mails FASCINATING.  They ask many of the same questions that we have covered here and on several other blogs, however in the end they simply decide NOT to take the risk, and as we know left it up to the bloggers to continue the investigation.

Just imagine what could have happened if they had decided to REALLY go after this with all of the resources at their disposal.  The mind reels.

It takes some time to work your way through, but if you are a person who has been following this story since the beginning, you are undoubtedly going to want to take a look.

Update: Andrew Sullivan weighs in on these e-mails as well. He DID say he would not address the Trig parentage issue until there was new evidence.  I guess this qualifies.

Update 2: Sarah's Facebook writer holds up the Special Needs community as a shield to deflect attention away from her insane birth story, and to condemn liberal journalists for their private conversations.

Her post is simply ridiculous but it also misses the point that these "journalists" did her a huge favor by convincing themselves, and each other, NOT to pursue the mystery of Trig's birth to its natural conclusion, the uncovering of a poorly constucted lie.