Babygate Puzzle - the misfits and the holes

Commenting on the post Working the Babygate Puzzle, Cheryl suggested I compile a list of underdeveloped areas in the puzzle, and I agreed to do so with your help. Below are the things mentioned by readers, so far.  If anyone wants to add to the list, say so in the comments and I can post revised lists once a week until it looks like we've got what we need.

It's such a big puzzle, we need lots of workers searching testing and fitting pieces. If you haven't got a particular area you are working, I hope this helps you focus and dig in. 

HOLES IN THE BABYGATE PUZZLE:

Trig's bio father

Trig's bio mother

Trig's PLACE of birth

Pictures of Sarah in hospital with Trig

Pictures of Bristol in hospital with Tripp

Pictures of Bristol from first week of October 2007 (MTV video) to February 2008 Go Red luncheon.

Did Sarah have a tubal ligation after Piper

Was Trig was acquired

If Trig was acquired, was he officially adopted?

What are all the things in Sarah’s real medical history that prevented her from releasing it?

If Sarah was pregnant, who was her real physician and why was CBJ involved at all?

Did she fly to Palmer every week for a physician's appt?

PIECES THAT MIGHT BE FORCED TOGETHER (POSSIBLY NOT A TRUE FIT)

Tripp's birthday Dec. 28

Trigg's birthday April 18

TriggyBear pictures May 5

Date of picture of Piper holding newborn Tripp

Ruffles as separate from RNC Trig

Sarah announced her pregnancy the day after McCain cinched the nomination.

PIECES OF SOME PUZZLE – MAYBE THIS ONE, MAYBE NOT

Dylan Kolvig

What happened the 2nd week of March in '07 that caused so much commotion in the Palin and Kolvig families?  (Bristol whisked back to Wasilla by ferry/car thru Haines after that weekend; Todd’s change of plans and sending emails out to aides at 4am desperately trying to get back to Juneau?

What happened on the Cheeky B and the Pacifica in March of 07 (FOIA request was filed on both boats. It took months. The Alaska Coast Guard balked and said the records would have to be gotten from Washington, DC. When the reports arrived, they were entirely BLACKED OUT!

Is it true that Bristol and Track were on those boats?

Why did Robert Kolvig suddenly leave his position with JPD and move to Florida?

Why did Dylan go hide down in Arizona?

 This last section is a complete mystery to me.  I don't know if it's Babygate-related or even if it's Palin-family stuff.  Somewhere along the way, I've totally missed this.  If someone wants to write to me and explain it, siting whatever backup documentation is available, I'll look at it and perhaps do a post (or  put up a guest post).  My email is thepalinplace@gmail.com.

Book review – “Looking for Inspiration” by Shailey M Tripp (2011)

One year ago, in January, 2011, the National Enquirer ran with a story about Todd Palin having a mistress. A woman who had been arrested for prostitution. A single mom by the name of Shailey Tripp was exposed to national attention and humiliation. For Ms. Tripp, it was a calculated move.  She’d sold her story to the tabloid, she’d passed the lie detector tests, she’d shown them email exchanges between herself and the First Dude. Game on.

Babygate bloggers grabbed the ball and ran with it. Those of us on the side lines cheered; we wondered what the next offensive play would be, and what defense the Palin team would use. Woo hoo! Trig Truthers  had a new player to cheer for, to get to know, to follow the way football fanatics follow their favorite quarterback. Sarah Palin had someone new to belittle. Someone to whine about with her "Oh, geez, can you believe it," defense like she uses when she calls us Wackos. 

We know  how it turned out.  The team  on the side of truth and Palin exposure took a trouncing. The officiating was rigged. What should have won points with the media and move Team Tripp into Super Bowl-level completion for national attention, was instead, called back and reversed by crooked law enforcement officials. By the time the Packers defeated the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV,  the powerhouse playing for the Palins had put the fledgling Shay Tripp team to rest, too. 

But Shay is no quitter. And Truthers are determined. And, bloggers have their individual reasons for taking up the Babygate story, and each Palin blogger took a position. Some in prominent starter positions and some second string. Whether on the field or in the stands, the folks who continued to believe that Todd Palin’s connection to a prostitute in Wasilla was a story that could still make it big were the bloggers and their readers. This team continued to show up and work out. Details emerged through Ms. Tripp’s testing out of creative strategies -selling  Todd Palin email exchanges on eBay, giving interviews with bloggers, starting her own blog, and self publishing her first book. 

That book, “Looking for Inspiration” is Shailey’s most personal story. It’s far more personal than any recounting of  sex acts with strangers could be. In this short book, Shay gives an honest account of troubled familial relationships. Details of sex for hire might sell, but if you’d rather pick up something  that stirs the compassionate side of you, I recommend “Looking for Inspiration.”  It’s  only 32 pages and that includes the “Special sneak  Preview” of Shailey Tripp’s next book. 

I’m going to give you a snippet from that Preview. I don’t think anyone else in Babygate bloggery has told you what’s in “Looking for Inspiration;” what follows if from page 30. 

“One officer was introduced and I was told this was his bust. I asked him his name and when he spoke I looked closer.  He was a former client; a sexual client. Then I noticed two FBI guys there who were also former clients. No way in hell I was going to say anything now. I knew this was serious.”

If that “Sneak Preview” doesn’t make you return to your seat for the second half of the game,   you  should turn in your  “Wacko” team jersey. 

 According to Shay’s blog, her second book, the one about Todd Palin, will be out early this year.Team Tripp is coming back onto the field after a rousing halftime pep talk delivered by all of us “coaches” who visit her blog – and we need to get behind her. Buy her first book if you are so inclined, I got mine through Amazon.com. Then, watch for the second one. I’ll announce it here as soon as I know it’s available and how to obtain it. 

Gotta tell 'ya, I’m more excited about Ms. Tripp's next book than I am about Super Bowl XLVI .  Go Shay! Sent a “hail Mary” pass into the end zone of the Anchorage Police Department. Game on!.

Flu Shot for Sarah - A Small Puzzle Piece

Later this week I will compile a list of areas that need work in order to complete the puzzle, meanwhile I'm passing around a little thing I found today that I haven't seen  before. Somewhere, this will fit into the picture we are putting together of Sarah’s phony claim to have been carrying a baby – Trig – in November, 2007.  The little item comes from Sarah's November 2007 email. 

Was Sarah wrestling with the decision about getting a flu shot because she was pregnant? Or was it,  as it appears at face-value, strictly politics? I'm thinking that if Sarah was actually pregnant, her first consideration would have been toward her baby. The politics of a flu shot are miniscule compared with having a healthy pregnancy and delivering a healthy baby.

I couldn’t find any coverage about whether she had one or not but the affects of the shot on the fetus cannot be downplayed. At the time these emails were exchanged, Sarah, if she had actually been pregnant, would have been in that period between knowing she was “with child” and finding out the baby had an extra chromosome. Sarah claims in “Going Rogue” and many speeches since, that she found out about Trig’s Down Syndrome in early December, 2007.

This is a tiny puzzle piece, and to properly place it, we need to know, what does the medical community say about flu shots and pregnancy?  According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a flu shot for anyone who’s pregnant during the flu season – typically November through January or even later.” (Isn’t the Internet amazing? I had that information in under 60 seconds. Sarah, if actually pregnant at that time, and if she cared, could have had it that quickly, too.)

The website offers many good reasons to back up the advice. Here they are, one at a time:

Pregnancy puts extra stress on your heart and lungs.  Note:  Sarah’s heart was no twenty-something heart.  Even though she might present the argument that running kept her heart strong, this supposedly pregnant woman had already put some miles between herself and her fortieth birthday.

Pregnancy can also affect your immune system. [extra stress on heart and lungs increases] the risk, not only of getting the flu but of developing serious complications of the flu, such as pneumonia and respiratory distress.

In turn, flu complications increase the risk of…premature labor, preterm birth and other pregnancy complications. Note: We learned in “Going Rogue” that not all Sarah’s pregnancies were simple and successful. She had experienced pregnancy complications before.

A flu shot during pregnancy can help protect your baby after birth… the antibodies you develop will…help protect your baby from the flu.” (PLEASE  NOTE, the Mayo Clinic makes a point to differentiate between a shot (recommended) and a nasal dose which is not good for pregnant women to take).

Lest you think Sarah, as an Alaskan, has some built-up immunity to the flu, below is a chart published by the very agency that the Governor was supporting by signing the proclamation in 2007. According to a government report filed while Sarah Palin was in office,  the State of Alaska influenza is a leading cause of death in their state.

So, for the first time in her life, one year into her governorship,Sarah might get immunized against the flu. Hmmm. Was she listening to the staff who warned her she would need a good excuse not to get the shot because they were sure the question would be asked?  Or was it because it’s recommended that pregnant women get the shot. Pregnancy or politics? Where does this piece fit into our puzzle?

Are we forcing it to fit where we want it if we say this is one for the Trig Truthers? Does it really suggest Sarah was not pregnant?  It could be argued from either side, and I shall. But in the end, I think there’s more weight on one side than the other.

Sarah says she never got a flu shot before and never got the flu. No reason to doubt that, other than she lies about everything. But, that’s what she said, so let’s examine the wisdom of that rationale, taking it at face value. Does a negative outcome (not getting the flu) guarantee continued negative outcomes?  Of course not. That makes no more sense than a woman getting a negative pregnancy test result after unprotected sex assuming she had some immunity against getting pregnant. (Willow, read that again. You need to  understand that concept.)

It wasn’t a good argument by the governor, so perhaps it was a lie. Maybe, just maybe, she was using this lame excuse to hide some real reason for not rolling up her sleeve and taking one for All Alaskans. Maybe Sarah doesn’t like shots. Lots of people don’t like shots. Would we know?  Ah, yes, we do know. Sarah was getting shots into her belly that winter to dissolve fat. Even if Sarah had a strong aversion to injection, she could screw up her courage to get vanity shots. In the stomach, no less. Lipodissolve shots in the abdomen are a clue in themselves; suffice it to say that if she had them, she wouldn’t have some intense phobia causing her to reject a flu shot. Especially one  recommended as part of pre-natal care.

I’m going to make a decision on which pile of picture pieces this should go with – Sarah wasn’t pregnant.  I say this not only because I'm a Trig Truther, but because it makes sense. If she had been carrying a child, she would have either said, “I had a flu shot this year,” because she would have already done that on the advise of her doctor, or, if she wasn't yet under a doctor's care,  she would have done the same internet search I did, and discovered that she really needed to get one. In the latter case, her second email would more likely have said “Sign me up!”

She didn’t do either one, and I’m saying she didn’t act like a pregnant pro-life woman doing all she could to protect the unborn fetus within.

Working the Babygate Puzzle

Anyone familiar with The Palin Place, knows I spend time analyzing details. It’s part of my nature.The details in Sarah Palin's story about carrying Trig and birthing Trig don't add up. It is full of holes. It's the internet equivalent of a partially completed jigsaw puzzle with forced pieces that don't really belong together.. Working on the Babygate puzzle means undoing some wrongly attached sections, matching up the right pieces and fitting in stray pieces that we have looked at but have not put together yet. 

Some pieces of information were discarded at first, by Truthers assuming they didn't belong to this puzzle. Like Bristol naming her son Tripp. And then, unexpectedly, we are given information - likeTodd Palin's link with Shailey Trippo - information so  similar to that tossed aside piece, that we know there must be a way to connect it.  If only we could figure it out.

And there are pieces yet to be found. All the major players are hiding some pieces. 


As a child, I loved puzzles. One thousand piece puzzles would appear from time to time on my grandmother's dining room table, and I was pretty good at finding the elusive missing link to fill in an empty spot others hadn't yet found. Maybe that’s where I learned patience and nit-picky observation. A puzzle under construction was as much a part of the home as the smell of ginger cookies baking in the oven on Saturday afternoon.

Copying grandma and other family members, I learned to shuffle through hundreds of separate die-cut cardboard shapes looking for similarities of pattern and color, matching up sets of like-colored irregular shapes and studying one against another to see if and how they fit together. All the white ones in a pile (snow is a real challenge), all the dark blue or black together to work out the night sky, and as many as you could find with one flat edge the better. Those flat edges built the perimeter. There was teamwork, consultation, requests for help with an elusive piece or two. Everyone who sat down took whatever area interested them and worked at it. Not always together.  Not every day. But, the more people finding where the pieces fit means a quicker assembly of the various portions of the picture.

Working a puzzle takes patience - taking like-colored irregular shapes, trying to fit one into another, being convinced they are  a match, only to find they are off by a hair - it's a past time for the determined. Putting a puzzle together is best with teamwork, consultation with someone else, and getting a fresh set of eyes looking for an elusive piece or two. Everyone who sat at my grandma's dining room table - adult or child - worked on whatever area interested them and any contribution to the whole was as important as anyone else's. 

That’s what reminds me of today’s Babygate puzzle and the bloggers working it. While Floyd Orr puts together the sociological aspects of Palinism, Gryphen works on Ruffles, two or more Trigs and two or more Tripps. Palingates gave us clear photographic evidence, Politicalgates continues to work all the corners, and  Shailey Tripp is the one clarifying Todd Palin portions of the Palin puzzle. When Brad Scharlott jumped in, he took as many Dr CBJ pieces and Wild-Ride shaped segments as we had and began studying them from a legal perspective applying his photographic and academic research skills to the puzzle. Here at The Palin Place Levi has emerged as my territory. All of us, and others, are working all the parts, wherever we see a possible fit we try to fill something in. Our fellow Truthers add to the picture everytime they make a new observation in a comment thread or remind all of us of old discoveries that have been momentarily forgotten. 

If you've worked on  a 1000 or 5000 piece  jigsaw puzzle, you understand the critical importance of each tiny piece and have had the experience of trying the same piece in the same place over and over because it sure looks like it belongs there, only to find in the end that, in order  to solve the puzzle you have to consider alternatives. It's a lesson for Trig Truthers and anti-Palin bloggers.  If you or I  don’t keep an open mind, it will take someone else to find that missing shape. Someone without our set of biases who takes a look at the holes in the puzzle, rummages through the orphans and comes up with a fit.  It happens. It's the neglected little cardboard chip that was passed up time and again that ends up solving a long-unfinished section of the puzzle. 

In the large Babygate puzzle, my work so far has been to match up some of the smaller and peripheral pieces because somewhere out  there is the combination of puzzle pieces that, when assembled, will resolve the picture, it will become clear. And that won’t happen until enough of us look at things differently. It won’t happen by trying over and over to force shapes together that are not a match. If I’m trying to force the picture to fit my idea of how it goes, you can comment and redirect the conversation. Please do.

We only make progress when everyone’s thoughts are respected. We Truthers must support each other’s right to try assembling this puzzle from where we sit and observe. It’s a major undertaking. If you haven’t already, please jump in. 

Once in a while, I'd find a peice that had fallen from the table and gotten kicked under one of the legs of the big oak pedestal. Whenever that happened, it was like a gift. Always, with it's dicovery was the hope and expectation that it was the clue to solving the whole rest of the puzzle. In Babygate, we call this the nail in the coffin. There have been been times when we thought a photo turning up would be that piece.Yet, we still have unresolved, unclear areas of the Babygate picture.


Large puzzles take time, but there is something rewarding about filling that one empty spot that no one else has been able to figure out. And there’s excitement when you return after a few days and find somebody else has added to the picture, and resolved an area that, last you looked, was undeveloped.  The Babygate hoax is a challenging jigsaw puzzle. It can become tiresome at time, and some have contributed then decided to walk away for a while. Both Babygate and cardboard puzzles are best when worked by many people. And both have a magnetism that draws you back to check in, and see how it's coming along.  
 

I will always be  attracted to a puzzle in progress, and Babygate is my favorite . I'm in it for the long-haul, and I have confidence it will be solved.

Sarah the Queen of the Pro-Life

Truthers have worked hard for three years. A weariness has set in. Yet it has never been more important than now to press on. In less than ten months, this nation votes for someone to lead us through another four years. This is a critical time for Trig Truthers, it’s what we claim we’ve been about all along. (And no, it’s not about Trig.) It’s about Sarah Palin’s Babygate, the audacity of the hoax, and buying votes with intentional lies. 

If not truthers, then who will  expose  the media’s willful burying of this story and expose the politicians who were complicit? The voting public needs an education about the vulnerabilities inherent in assuming politicians are “like us” or believing a wink, a smile, and a wave are leadership qualities.

Mitt Romney is not like you or me. Neither is Newt with his million dollar credit account at Tiffany's. ,  Mr. Santorum has a heart-warming story, but elections shouldn't be about stories of one family, their life and struggles. It's about so much more. It's about each and every one of us. Every one making up the 99% has a story.  We are what this election is about - individually, and together.   Unlike the 1%, we can't foot the bills for an advertising blitz to get the word out, but we can talk to our neighbors. One to one.

There are still blocks of passionate voters who zealously cheer any self-appointed savior of America who claims to be  God-annointed and pro-life.  Sarah Palin is their queen. She is the female embodiment of the Tea Party movement and far right wing so-called Christian Conservative block. (BTW, Sarah is probably delighted that Michelle Bachmann fell by the wayside. Our society typically only allows one women at a time to be in the spotlight. Sarah, the beauty pageant contestant, understands that. Now the Ms. Bachmann has been cast aside, watch for Ms. Palin to come up with some plan to make news. It will happen.)  She hasn’t lost her voice, she’s buying some time while other voices dominate the microphone, but have you noticed how many news broadcasts have included her comments about Newt? That camel has her nose in the GOP tent again. 

When I encounter someone who embraced Sarah for her courageous "choice" and seeks out only candidates that are "pro-life," I challenge them to think of choice and life in the broadest sense. I'm confused by those who are staunchly pro-life and also vehemently opposed to providing healthcare to the poor. If life is the pivotal issue to them,  then wouldn't they support the candidate who shows concern for  life from birth until the grave? Sometimes, my pro-life friends will change the subject to "the Constitution." Fine. Support the candidate that shows concern for the things affecting the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.  I will ask - are you pro-life enough to put your money where your mouth is?  Or does your support of life expire when the first breath is taken? When it comes down to voting yes to help save lives through medical assistance, food, and housing, what is the real pro-life  vote on these issues?  If children, once they pass through the birth canal and take their first breath, are born into poverty, or develop an illness, or have neighborhood schools ill equipped to meet their needs, are those things not our Constitutional concern?  How about our moral concern?

If future generations of your family face health, financial, and educational challenges, how will they make it through?  If your grandchildren are sick, will they have healthcare? What quality of education do you wish for them to receive? Do you care about future generations of your own family?  It's up to the voters of 2012 to wrestle with these problems.  There isn’t anyone else. We must press on.

Honestly, is This Really Bristol's Top Priority?

I really wanted to ignore Bristol's In Touch Magazine story from last week. It's another of her  oh-so-familiar self-congratuatory spins on her being a good mom, Tripp being amazing, and Levi being worthless.  I really wanted to spare everyone that, including myself. But, today on Politicalgates blog there's some very interesting new information about properties the Palins have been buying up, and within their post they reference the In Touch article and the lies within. 

They give tons of information about Bristol's new Wasilla house, pictures outside and inside, and they expose her for, once again, lying to her faithful rag In Touch Magazine. Shocking, I know. Politicalgates is worth your time. Go and read about Sarah, Todd and Bristol's property purchases, see if you have any sympathy for the rough life Bristol is going to have living in that 3,155 sq ft home. It's NOT the "1950s fixer-upper" she claims in the interview.  She also claims to have Tripp's best interests at heart.

Bristol may have had a taste of the limelight, but now her top priority is her son. "Honestly, I just want him to be happy."

Really Bristol?

Then give him more time with these people, 'cause anyone can see that makes him happy:

Now, doesn't that do your hearts good?  I know it does mine. Yes, these are from Facebook and they are the new, right now, profile pictures. Mercede and Levi know people are interested, people want Tripp to have visitation with his daddy, and people will be happy when they see these. It was nice of them to share these pictures publicly. 

One more thing about  Politicalgates, give yourself the time to read all the way to the end. It's long and it's worth it. Hat's off the them for great investigative work. 

I can't resist quoting their wrap up message to the Palins. It's spot on.

Bristol, Sarah, Todd: You made millions of dollars through the marketing of yourself and your family. Stop playing the victim, and stop accusing Levi of not properly supporting you. Levi was ostracised by your family and was never given a chance. He was also not in the position to make hundreds of thousands of dollars through marketing his son Tripp, in magazines, abstinence adverts, and on TV reality shows - like Bristol did, without any shame. Stop making up stupid stories about how tough and hard-working you all are, when none of this is true. How thrifty and modest you are. Try to be honest, and try to take responsibility for your actions, for a change. 

And to that I would add-  let Tripp see his daddy, get to know his daddy, and love his daddy. His life will be richer for it. He doesn't need your 3155 sq ft house, but he does need and deserves his daddy's love. 

Levi Johnston Blurts Out Truth

September 20, 2011, the day Levi Johnston's book "Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs" came out, he talked with two ladies on the WPIX Morning News in New York City.  It wasn't his best interview, he wasn't quite as pumped as he was in some later interviews with better known personalities on other networks and other shows.

Maybe he was still on Alaska time. Or maybe this was his first book tour interview and his script wasn't perfected. Pick any reason you like for Levi once again blurting out something we need to remember.  He said he intentionally didn't put some "stuff" in DITH.  So much for this promised tell-all.

The moment happened quickly two minutes into his appearance. The interviewers were friendly, and they were joking comfortably with him.  Levi didn't have his guard up, nor did he need to. He wasn't being grilled nor did they show any sign of doubting what he'd written.

After a couple minutes, one of them - a pretty young interviewer with dark hair - pointed out that his version of the sexual relationship he had with Bristol differed from the one his former fiance presented in her memoir "Not Afraid of Life." A simple question followed. She wanted to know if he hesitated before deciding to go ahead and reveal the "steamy stuff" i.e. he and Bristol having sex for a long time, contradicting the time frame Bristol had given.

If Levi were a quick thinker, he might have said, "No, I was out to tell the truth and that's what I did."

No one has ever accused Levi of quick thinking. This is an example why that isn't going to change.

If Levi were well coached (by Tank who likes his client to appear chivalrous), he could have said, "You know, yeah, I tried to find a way around that. I don't like to kiss and tell. But in the end, I had to tell the truth. I couldn't lie."

The latter answer would have been slick because any sharp interviewer would have followed up by pointing out that Levi is on record as a liar, which of course would be playing right into his hands (if he and his team were so clever.)  If I'd prepped Levi for the interview, the script would have continued with something like this:

Like I say in the book, one of the worse things I've gone through was when Bristol and I got back together and I looked like a fool with that apology coming out to Sarah that, you know, I didn't write, but you got to read the book to find out what really happened.  So you see, I knew if I lied about that - the sex -  then I would have become that liar the Palins want people to believe I am.  But I'm not. So I put everything in the book. Steamy stuff and all. 'Cause that's what really happened.

Of course that isn't what Levi said.  Not even close. Because the 21 year-old "author" didn't have his guard up.  And he isn't a good liar, though sometimes he tries. Here's what he said:

"Well, th..there's you know, there's a lot of stuff in the book that I..I didn't put in the book for, for reasons that I didn't,  I didn't want it in there yet..." [interviewing hosts can be heard reacting to this and they make it more difficult to hear clearly what else  Levi says ] "I got to save, I got to save some stuff for book two, same s*** (?)  happens..."

Having read the book, that is no big news to me.  Nor should it be to anyone regularly reading this blog.  It's been a repeated theme of mine on this blog. (If you are going to check out the archives, don't miss the very first post "Allison's Own Thoughts..." and other Levi-related posts linked here and here.  Browse around the archived posts that most interest you, and have fun).

That word Levi used that starts with "s" is not clear to me and he may have said something I didn't get at all. I need your help, so I'm linking below to the interview,  where this portion begins two minutes into it, and lasts only 30 seconds or so. It's difficult to get exactly what Levi says because the hosts weren't expecting Levi's "news" that there is anything more (enough for a second book) and they begin to react.  While they are talking, Levi is talking, and he is reacting to their reactions. Whew.

This is what happens when non-Trig Truthers interview Levi. They just don't know when they've been handed a journalistic opportunity that could put them on the front of the National Enquirer if they did their jobs.  (Well, okay, maybe not the front page of the NE, that would be where Levi and Sarah would be, side-by-side in pictures where he looks like a deer in the headlights and she looks like an angry old crone. But they could have at least negotiated for a small inset picture of themselves  accompanying the inside story.)  And what a story it could have been. Levi Johnston threatening to write a second book exposing Bristol Palin's darkest secrets...

Say what? Whose secrets?

Bristol's!  The train of questioning was, did Levi have any reservations about talking about his sexual history with Bristol.  His unrehearsed (immediate) reaction was that he had held some stuff back. Trig Truthers who are in the Bristol-as-Trig's-Bio-Mom camp should accept that pretty easily.  I accept it easily because, as I've written before, in DITH there are passages that sound as if Levi claimed Trig as his own child before editing took out supporting story lines.  "My special boy," he calls Trig. In another place he says he thought he should have been invited to Trig's birthday party more than a year after he and Bristol broke up. Why would that be? Then there's the part about Trig's birth. Way over the top in sentimentality and intimacy to be the story of a mere mullet-headed boyfriend dating the teenaged daughter who is jealous of her mother for having a baby.  So, yeah, I think Trig is Bristol's and Levi's original intentions were to spill it.  When the question came, he heard the part about not putting everything in the book and he blurted out an honest answer without thinking.

He even says there was "a lot of stuff in the book that I" and then he catches himself, stops, stutters, and changes direction oh-so-slightly.  He continues with  the correction, "I didn't put in the book..."

That's exactly what I've theorized. I think it was Trig's true birth story that was "in the [first ghost-written  draft of the] book" before Levi got cold feet and "didn't put in the [final version of the] book."  And let me guess - there it was about 15 pages worth of "stuff." Right, Levi? Fifteen pages of stuff about Bristol, Levi, sex, and babies. Trig is Bristol and Levi's son. Tripp was conceived in February, 2008 and born around Thanksgiving.  All cut from the published version because Levi decided he needed to hold something back to use if "the same s*** happens." Yup, and the Cowan's forgot how many pages shorter the revised version was, and that's.....that's one of my prior posts.

Levi stated unequivocally that he is holding stuff back. No reason to hold small stuff back, Right? So it's big stuff. This is all very interesting for us who think Bristol birthed Trig and that little boy is a Johnston, but that can distract from the bigger moment in this interview. The words hardest to catch are the most revealing.

"...I got to save some stuff for book two, ... same s*** (?)  happens..."

That's what I'm curious about - exactly what the  "s***"  was that he wouldn't want to see happen again. Whatever it is, it's  so terrible that he continues to deny his own son, Trig, in order to keep that *s***" at bay.  

When I heard Levi's interview back in September, I knew there wouldn't be any Trig revelations.  I figured the "s***" he was talking about was the difficulty of seeing Tripp. I figured that in exchange for a wimpy, sell-out story, the Palins would allow the Johnstons to see Tripp around Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and some December day when they would have a birthday party. 

When, two weeks after Leiv's PIX interview, Mercede began planning Tripp's Halloween party, I was sure I had it figured out.  I was wrong.

Bristol pulled the plug on Tripp's Halloween time with Levi. A last minute and cruel change of plans. I was surprised. 

Then Thanksgiving, no time for Johnston's in Tripp's holiday. Same with his real birthday, same with Christmas, same with the announced birthday...what happened to the deal Levi made with Sarah?  I've had to re-evaluate it. Here's my updated theory - The Deal With the Quitter is  about Levi's mom, Sherry Johnston. 

Three years after her arrest, December 18, 2008, and two years after she was released from prison and began home confinement, Levi still lives in fear that the Palins can orchestrate a blending of events that would put his mother or some member of his family behind bars. Truthers believe it, too. This theory comes up on anti-Palin blogs whenever the discussion is about Levi not doing more to get to see Tripp. The court order is being ignored by Bristol. There has to be a reason she has the confidence to thumb her nose at the law and at Levi. This may be it. Or this may be one part of a greater "it." 

People leave comments that say compared Mrs. Johnston's long sentence to the light sentence given to Todd Palin's half-sister Diana Palin as evidence that Levi's mom didn't get a fair shake in the court system because it was a way to keep Levi (and family) from spilling Sarah's secrets.  (One of which is the Bristol is Trig's birth mother.)  

  

A critical piece to understanding Levi's concern for his mom is knowing about Sherry Johnston's health issues. She has endured chronic pain for many years. Levi grew up witnessing his mother's pain and how she dealt with that pain. Having a problem with insurance coverage for her medications was the reason Sadie gave on her blog to explain her mother being lured into selling a few pills (which turned out to be a set up leading to the arrest).

It may well be that to Levi, what's worse than not seeing his son or sons on a daily basis, is seeing Sherry wearing an ankle bracelet and being confined to her home. Levi may very well feel guilty about that. He might feel responsible for the harsh penalty his mom is paying for her own actions. If she weren't his mother, would she have gotten off with a lighter sentence?  Most Babygate followers and Trig Truthers believe so. 

Levi loves his mom. He writes about her being "the Kool-Aid mom" - the one giving the kids snacks and drinks after school. She "knew all the players, would root for me and all my friends even when they were on the opposite team." Poignantly, he talks about his mom attending his games even while in pain.  "I can still see her in my mind, jumping up and down, from back when I was an elementary-school kid - even though she was usually sick." And this one from page 32:

...I was twelve. She was in the hospital and there was a big game.

She had to go.

No, the doc said, you can't.

What if, she bargained, I come back here after the game.

I made sure we won that one.

Levi didn't write this book for himself, not the final version, anyway.

DITH isn't for his son or Trig. Levi Johnston's published version of Deer in the Headlights is for his mother who used to go out even when she was in the worst pain. His mother who couldn't be kept from going where she could cheer for, support, and hug her son. Couldn't be stopped by pain or by hospitalization.  It took the law to confine her to home. It took pink handcuffs, courtesy of Sarah Palin's friend in Arizona. Those cuffs were a not-so-subtle message to the Johnstons that Sarah was involved, Sarah had influence, Sarah was using a third party public entity to handcuff Levi's mom.  And they got the message, you betcha!

If he wanted to write a book for the masculine side of the Johnston clan it would have more truths.  Instead, Levi wrote a wimped-out version supporting Sarah Palin in her Babygate hoax in  hopes that, in return, his mother will be given some peace. 

So, Levi has Trig truths to spill and he's holding them back to keep the Palin machine from crushing his mother, and to some extent, to protect Sadie.   It only makes sense that what he held back is HUGE. 

This is my best guess.  What's yours?