A few words about yesterday's Trig Palin post.

There has been a rather unexpected response to my "The Return of the Ruffled Ear Version of Trig Palin" post which, of course, is great.  However it also resulted in quite a lot of argument and frustration, some of which I anticipated, some of which I did not.

Tomorrow I am going to post a much longer response to many of your questions, and also take the time to clear up a number of misconceptions. I am doing it then instead of today, because I have found that more people visit IM on the weekdays, and I want to make sure that the largest audience possible sees the post so that I don't have to keep revisiting the same issues over and over.

The first thing I need to explain is how to see older comments, because as of this post there are over 500 comments and counting. I have tested this on my regular computer as well as my I-Pod and it seems that in order to access the comments you simply have to click the headline and then afterward go to the bottom of the page and click the "load more" button. Sometimes you have to do this several times (I just had to do it seven times to see them all.) but it SHOULD provide access to all of the comments on that post. (Remember that some comments are in answer to previous comments so they will not show at the bottom of the page, but instead under whichever comment they were addressing.)

Now the other thing I do want to clear up today is something brought up by a commenter suggesting that I had NOT confronted Sherry and Mercede about inconsistencies in their statements, or that I had been too soft on them.

That is not accurate.  I have indeed asked both of them very pointed questions numerous times, and have found that either they simply did not know the answers or were unsure of dates and times.

I have mentioned before that my job often requires that I work with people who are habitual liars and I am pretty good at picking up on when people not telling me the truth. I have NEVER picked up on that when talking to Sherry or Sadie. NEVER!

In fact, and Joe McGinniss would back me up on this, Sherry is the sweetest, most trusting person you could imagine. I am not even sure she knows HOW to lie. (Joe once described her as being "completely without guile.")

Now does that mean I have told you EVERYTHING they have told me? No, it does not. Are any of the things that I am not sharing huge earthshaking bits of information that would rock your world? No they are not.

They are more along the line of things that Levi does not want known to everybody, or things that they do not want the whole world to know about their lives. I am sure we can all respect their desire to have at least some privacy in their lives.

But for those who are convinced that they are duplicitous, let me remind you of the many things that have only been revealed because the Johnstons HAVE been so forthcoming.

For instance we know that while the McCain campaign had operatives in their home back in 2008, that Sadie's computer was completely wiped clean.



We also learned, well before Levi admitted it in his book, that Bristol was trying to get pregnant, and that Tripp was no accident. (This revelation first came as a slip of the tongue from Sherry while Dennis Zaki and I were over at their house interviewing them. They asked me to keep it quiet, and I did until finally Sadie revealed it on her blog.)

It was also from them both that day when I first heard about the text in which Bristol told Levi that, when she heard she was pregnant, she "hoped it wasn't his." 

Sadie even went so far as to pose in Playboy in order to gain access to a forum which allowed her to tell the world the truth about Bristol and Levi, the numerous Palin lies, Track's substance abuse issues, and of course the real reason he enlisted in the military.

Then there are these pictures of Levi, which had NEVER been seen before.

Now there have been numerous questions raised about these pictures, and accusations that the Johnstons are holding something back, but the fact remains that the ONLY reason we ever saw them is because Sadie and Sherry brought them to my attention and gave me permission to publish them. (Something which NEVER would have happened if I had been an asshole to them or treated them like suspects instead of people who had been terribly mistreated by the most powerful family in their little town.)

In other words there is really NOTHING demonstrated by their actions, or revealed by their demeanor, which would suggest that Sherry and Sadie have been anything but both honest and completely forthcoming.  And considering how they feel about what Bristol is currently doing to Levi, can ANYBODY really imagine why they would hold back any damaging information they might know?

Okay now obviously this post is going to attract a lot of debate, and that is welcome here, but I warn you in advance that any ad hominem attacks on my friends, and yes they are indeed my friends, will not see the light of day. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me, but simple name calling or unfounded accusations against the Johnston family will not be tolerated. Remember they do read here quite often.

Tomorrow I will go a little more in depth to explain some of the issues brought up by yesterday's post.  I will even share with you the contents of a recent message left on my answering machine by a certain Tank Jones.

 So stay tunes.