Lefties and Media Shocked that Evangelicals Are Not Rending Their Garments Over Bristol Palin

Normally this time of the year when I hear the word "Bristol" it's referring to the Bristol Motor Speedway and the infamous Sprint Cup night race in front of 160,000 fans. However, this year "Bristol" stands for Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin's 17-year old unmarried and pregnant daughter.

When the news broke Monday morning you could almost read the gleeful anticipation in the media reports that the air would go completely out of the Sarah Palin balloon and that all those conservatives who had been so excited all weekend would hang their heads in shame and quickly abandon all hope for November. Imagine the surprise of the media and the lefties when prominent evangelicals like Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council issued statements of support:

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) – Key evangelical leaders rallied to Sarah Palin's support Monday amid news that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was having a child.

"Before, they were excited about her, with the Down syndrome baby," conservative, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist said. "But now with this, they are over the moon. It reinforces the fact that this family lives its pro-life values."

Palin and John McCain oppose abortion and have supported promoting abstinence in schools — which would seem to make Bristol Palin's pregnancy an inconveniently timed development.

But she is keeping the child, a fact that could make the Alaska governor — whose candidacy has been enthusiastically embraced by evangelicals who regard her as one of their own — even more popular among that key GOP voting bloc.

"Fortunately, Bristol is following her mother and father's example of choosing life in the midst of a difficult situation," Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said. "We are committed to praying for Bristol and her husband-to-be and the entire Palin family as they walk through a very private matter in the eyes of the public."

Even Barack Obama was smart enough to realize that offering any criticism couldn't possibly be a winning strategy and wisely counseled his followers to shut-up.

I have to say, given the multiple opportunities for Monday to have gone horribly wrong for the GOP (Hurricane Gustav, Bristol Palin, Todd Palin's DUI, GOP Convention shortened), the GOP actually came out looking pretty good. Neither Palin news items seemed to make any difference to anybody that mattered, Gustav was handled quite expertly by both the Republican Federal government and the Republican Gulf State Governors, and the shortened GOP convention really didn't make much difference at all.

However, the lefties will not be denied. One website is running a pool on what day Palin will drop out of the race. They really don't understand the conservative electorate at all.