While searching for comments on IM about Sarah’s “tubal” I used a word – cookies – that was in a suggestion from one of our Palin Place readers and it led to something interesting. It's not about Sarah's tubal, it’s something about Tripp’s age.
If you’ve read “Hockey Sticks and Pregnancy Sticks,” you know I think the Palins lie about Tripps age. And if you've read "The Insiders: MeAgain and Sue Williams," you know why I think old stuff is worth a closer look.
In a mundane post with unremarkable comments, March 16, 2009 on Immoral Minority we learn that Sarah set up a publicity stunt in Juneau with some of the youngest family members. They went to Fred Meyer to buy Girl Scout cookies. Sarah introduces the Girl Scouts to the children with her.
"These are my children, Willow, Piper and [11-month-old] Trig," Palin told an excited group of Girl Scouts. Then Palin, 45, motioned to a baby bundled in a hoodie, held and bottle-fed by Piper. "And this is my grandbaby Tripp," she said of the infant son of her daughter Bristol, 18. "He's only 2-months-old. It's kind of surreal!," she added."
Missing from the Palin family group was Bristol, in the news after her split with Tripp's father Levi Johnston, 19. There's no mystery, though. "Oh, Bristol is over at the state capitol building golfing in a miniature golf tournament," Palin told PEOPLE. "It's a fundraiser and she's up there taking my place while I'm here."
At that time, Immoral Minority was focused on the "Where's Tripp? Where's Bristol?" chapter in the perplexing saga of Palin family non-normal behaviors. Suspicion and supposition swirled around the comment thread, Truthers trying to track down details of the mini-golf event.
What only two commenters pointed out was Sarah misstating Tripp's age. "And this is my grandbaby Tripp,...he's only 2-months-old."
The readers who did catch that grabbed onto it as evidence that Tripp Johnston was born later than December 27, 2008 . It was a popular theory at that time, and it’s still around.
First comment about it read:
mlaiuppa said...
What Saturday morning was this? Last Saturday?
Uh...Tripp would be almost three months old. 11 weeks old. That's almost 3 months.
What Grandmother rounds DOWN her grandchild's age?
Slip of the tongue? Was Tripp born later than reported? Like....mid January?
Mlaiuppa was right about the age thing. It's always been my experience that babies, when they are born, are referred to as hours old. That becomes days, and before long, we talk about weeks. At the one month stage the rules, such as they are, change. It's common to use months and weeks together, but it's just as common to continue counting weeks. For example, 7 days after the one month "birthday" (which is ALWAYS noted by those who love a child) the age description becomes "one month and one week" or "five weeks." But no one ever goes backwards.
Mlaiuppa makes a guess as to the reason and the direction that Sarah rounded Tripp's age, but we've learned more since then and I for one, now believe Tripp was been born weeks before he was outed by an out of town relative randomly called by a reporter in late December.
How does this fit with Babygate? My thoughts:
• Starting with Track, then Trig, we know Sarah fudges baby due dates.
• That makes it easy to believe she would fudge the Tripp due date and birthdate if she had a reason.
• Whatever the reason, Bristol and Levi went along.
• Sarah lies so often, she's become quite cavalier about it. (Think Paul Revere.) Misrepresenting Tripp's age, his grandmother was not particularly careful about it. Two months was close enough.
• Sarah has so many lies going, she can't remember exact details.
• On the other hand, Sarah showed an intentional effort to mention the two-month age. It wasn't for the Girl Scouts. No. It was for People magazine readers so they would have it in their heads. (Tip to Sarah: If you wanted anyone to think your comment was made to the children, you shouldn't have used the work 'surreal.' )
• The Palins misrepresented the stage of Bristol's pregnancy from the beginning for some reason we have yet to figure out.
- It must be a really good reason, because the Johnstons continue to keep that secret, too! (Though Levi, bless his heart, gave some clues in Deer in the Headlights.)
The day is coming when we will discover why Tripp's birthday had to be fudged. "It will be bad, exceedingly bad...but they have to have the whole terrible truth about just how bad it can be before they come to their senses. Let all of the poisons that lurk in the mud, hatch out."
(BTW Sarah, Todd, Bristol and Willow, those last lines are from Claudius the God, New York: Vintage Books, 1935; reprinted 1962 page 562. How’s that homeschooling- college hopping- dropping out stuff been workin’ out for ‘ya?)
10 comments:
I have a slightly different take here, since I agree with the view that Tripp is older than his stated age.
I think SP was using the opportunity to stress "TWO MONTHS" as opposed to three, four or five months. In other words, she was emphasizing that he was born "recently." I know that most families count infants days and weeks very carefully. BUT the Palins aren't like most families and SP is certainly not like most mothers. She is NOT focused on "every little thing," for each of her children or grandchildren. She is not the type of mother or granny that will lovingly count the hours and days and weeks of a child's life. She is sending out a message--" look at my almost newborn grandchild- (it's surreal) I just can't believe that he's here and that I am a granny."
As opposed to the possibilities that:
a- Tripp was born months before this
b- SP was already a granny, as BP might
have had a child before Tripp.
Conscious at last, the picture you paint of Sarah is like photo-realism. That's her!
She wouldn't count weeks - heck, she didn't even keep track of the flippin' hospital Trig was supposedly born in. And, you notice WHO was holding Tripp? Not grannybird. She was distancing herself in every way.
Additionally, I'm thinking she used the word 'surreal' as another way of saying 'can you believe it--me, a grandmother?' All about her 'brand' and more evidence of her narcissism.
Staging the scene with the child (age 8?) in the group holding the baby seems obvious too. Willow would have been the normal choice, assuming Sarah is carrying Trig, but then that would be seen as another 'teenage daughter with baby in tow' -- also bad for the brand.
Glad you've picked up the ball, Allison. This story has, as they say, 'legs', and until the GOP clown car empties out, no one should take their eyes off SP. She can still cause a lot of damage given any room in which to maneuver by the TP which is still apparently on stand by.
I'm not quite clear, forgive me- did she use the word "surreal" when talking to the Scouts or did she later say she had used the word?
I remember when Bush ran around claiming that he said he'd be doing something if he "hit the trifecta" when he was in Chicago. Close examination of the records showed that, while he claimed numerous times he had said this in Chicago, he had actually never done so. Remember Sarah's a liar.
If she did use the word "surreal" and I find it surreal to think she even knows the definition, it could have simply meant that having a baby and being a grandmother at the same time was a surreal experience for her.
Sarah is a very, very simple woman. She doesn't reason deeply. She's incapable of consequential thinking. I was actually thinking about her this morning: her morality is "want-take-have." She's incapable of reasoning out a problem, establishing a plan, and following it through. So when you say she may have deliberately used the term two months in order to create a record with People magazine, I think you may be giving her too much credit. I think it's entirely possible she just didn't, at that moment in time, remember the baby's actual age.
Ivyfree, the way it appears, Sarah used the word "surreal" and she probably was hoping for a "you're much too young to be a grandmother" type of comment from the adult G.S. leader. She loves a compliment.
I think she remembers to lie, she just isn't careful. Close enough is good enough. Kind of like the answers she gave Katie Couric.
Allison, do you remember when Palin told McAllister that the rumors about Bristol weren't true?
My fuzzy recollection is that it was late Feb., when there couldn't have been rumors about Tripp.
Found at Audrey's. If this means before people knew Palin was pregnant, it would be by early March. Audrey says:
Here is Bill's exact quote, from an article in the Anchorage Daily News, on August 29th when the rumors were being discussed all over the Internet:
McAllister was an Anchorage TV reporter before working for Palin. He said Palin once approached him - before people knew she was pregnant - assuming he'd been hearing rumors.
"She said it's not true about Bristol," McAllister said.
At the time, the rumor would have been that Palin's daughter was pregnant.
I think you are correct B. It would have been Trig rumor time, and if Trig was premature and in an NICU somewhere, she was being "honest" saying Bristol wasn't pregnant. How ironic that Bristol was, that same month, going to conceive Tripp.
"Surreal" means "A bizarre mix of fact and fantasy" and is described as "something so strange you cannot believe it is true."
So maybe Sarah was actually giving us a clue.
btw, don't forget to search for "two bull," which was how some source said Palin pronounced it.
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