Salon.com believes it has definitive proof that Sarah Palin DID give birth to her fifth child. Update!

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From Salon.com's Justin Elliott:

Steve Quinn, who is now a freelancer, was the Alaska-based Associated Press journalist who wrote the wire story reporting that Palin was pregnant in early March 2008. He told us that rumors were circulating that Palin was not truly pregnant even back then -- before she gave birth and well before she was tapped to be John McCain's running mate. So, like any good reporter, Quinn looked into it -- twice -- and came away with solid reasons to believe there was no hoax.

According to Quinn, in the days immediately after Palin announced her pregnancy that March, he was in the governor's office and asked her directly about the rumors. Palin smiled and, Quinn says, lifted an outer layer of clothing to show that she was indeed pregnant. "She was able to show a thin layer of clothing against her stomach that revealed an enlarged abdomen area," he says.

Quinn added that he heard from female legislators and friends of the governor that they suspected, based on physical changes, that Palin was pregnant well before she announced the news.

Several months later, after Palin had been tapped for the No. 2 slot on the GOP ticket, Quinn began looking into the rumors again. He called Palin's doctor, Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, who had personally induced Palin's labor in April. Baldwin-Johnson called him back several days after the Republican convention ended in early September. Quinn asked her directly if Trig was Sarah Palin's baby. "The doctor flat-out told me it was Palin's child," he recalled.

We also spoke to Erika Bolstad, a veteran McClatchy reporter who covers Washington for the Anchorage Daily News. In early 2008, Bolstad began working on a story about the vice-presidential buzz surrounding Palin. When Palin traveled to Washington for a meeting of the National Governors Association, held the weekend of Feb. 23-25, Bolstad caught up with Palin for an in-person interview.

This was about a week before the pregnancy was announced, and about seven weeks before Palin gave birth to Trig. Bolstad told us that she distinctly remembers thinking that the governor looked pregnant.

"When I interviewed her and heard the news a few days later that she was pregnant, there was no doubt in my mind that it was true," she said. "I saw her. She looked pregnant."

At the time of the National Governors Association conference, Sam Bishop was a staffer in the Alaska governor's office in Washington. Bishop, who is now an editor at the Fairbanks News-Miner, spent a large chunk of the second day of the conference -- Feb. 24, 2008 -- accompanying Palin to interviews and meetings. When he read the announcement about a week later that Palin was pregnant, Bishop told us, "I just slapped my forehead, and went, 'Duh!'"

Added Bishop: "It was so clear to me that she had been pregnant. She was wearing large scarves, clothing that was not form-fitting. Her face was more filled out than normal. She was very much pregnant, and fairly far along, when I met her."

Others reporters who were covering Palin at the time said she was showing clear signs of pregnancy.

I have interviewed over a dozen people who either worked with Palin or saw her during the time she says she was pregnant.  Not ONE of them knew she was pregnant before she announced it.  Almost ALL of them had some sense of doubt when they heard the news.  And SOME of them simply never believed she was telling the truth.

And those are people who saw her repeatedly, including some on her own staff.

I hate to call anybody a liar, but I have to wonder if Elliott realizes that the person he is using to provide this absolute undeniable evidence is the same guy who was having an affair with Ivy Frye while he was supposed to be covering Sarah Palin from an impartial point of view.
As Geoffrey Dunn recently wrote, he tried desperately to put the rumor to rest, and was unable to do so: (And speaking of Dunn, here is a page from his book mentioning Quinn.  Does Steve Quinn seem unbiased to you?)

Hoping to disprove the conspiracy theory when I initiated work on my book--and to put the story to bed once and for all--I interviewed several close associates of Palin's, including her friends and political allies. I was anticipating, perhaps even hoping, that they would tell me conclusively that Trig was her child.

I was shocked by the response. One close friend of Palin's--a widely respected woman who had given birth to several children as well and who had close contact with Palin in Juneau up until the time of Trig's birth--told me that "Palin did not look like she was pregnant. Ever. Even when she had the bulging belly, I never felt that the rest of her body, her face especially, looked like she was pregnant." When I asked her point-blank if she was certain the baby was Palin's, she said, "No. I don't know what to believe."

I can tell you right now that Dunn is NO "Trig Truther."  He has made no secret of the fact that he wants that part of the story to go away, but he has not been able to make that happen.  And by the way, neither has Joe McGinniss.

So has Justin Elliott REALLY discovered heretofore unreported information, as well as brand new eye-witnesses?  Or is this, like last night's E- True Hollywood Story, just another attempt by the Palin camp to kill this story before it breaks into the mainstream?

By the way. according to Quinn he only saw her "belly" through a thin layer of material, but WE know somebody who saw it much, much closer than that. Yeah I think I will put my ex-prostitute who easily passed five polygraph tests against Ivy Frye's fuck buddy any day of the week.

I wonder what the Grizzled Mama will do next to kill this story?

Update: As for this KTVA reporter Cherie Shirey, that is mentioned in the piece:

Then there is journalist Cherie Shirey of KTVA in Anchorage, who told the Huffington Post in 2008:

"We worked with Governer Palin many times in 2008. Our reporters worked her on location and in the studio and I worked with her myself. She was definitely pregnant. You could see it in her belly and her face."

Audrey of Palin's Deceptions wrote a long well researched piece about her attempts to make sense of Ms. Shirey's statements concerning Sarah's pregnancy.  Here is a short example, but I encourage all of you to read the entire post:

So... returning to Cherie Shirey's statement, "We worked with Gov. Palin many times in 2008... in the studio..."

Examining Sarah Palin's travel schedule at length, from the time of her announcement until Trig's birth reveals the following:

Circa March 4: Los Angeles to Anchorage
Circa March 7: Anchorage to Fairbanks
Circa March 9: Fairbanks to Anchorage
Circa March 11: Anchorage to Juneau
Circa March 14: Juneau to Anchorage
Circa March 27: Anchorage to Juneau
Circa April 15: from Juneau to Dallas
April 17: from Dallas to Anchorage

During this time, not counting days that she was traveling, Sarah Palin was physically in Anchorage / Wasilla approximately 17 days... out of the 44.

The first question I'd like to ask Cherie Shirey is how many times in these 17 days was Gov. Palin in your studio in Anchorage? What were the stories you were covering? Now certainly, a crew could have followed (and on at least one occasion did follow) Palin to various events: the famous Andrea Gusty shoot on April 13 was in Juneau, so the crew had to fly there. But you have stated specifically that you interviewed her many times in 2008 when she looked pregnant.

So... when? Where's the footage? What were the issues discussed? And, most pointedly, were you specifically claiming to Lee Stratham that there were those of you at KTVA who noticed or believed she was expecting prior to the official announcement on 3/5/2008? If so, why did you not state it immediately after the announcement when everyone else in Alaska was talking about shock and bombshells.

Gee, and people question the veracity of MY sources. Like I said, I will put my sources up against those of Justin Elliott any day of the week.