Palin to truthers: I shall not set you free

Sometimes the truth really doesn't matter, and those journalists and bloggers still insisting failed Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin go transparent on the birth of son Trig need to face this reality: Let this issue go. She is never going to show anyone his birth certificate because she doesn't want the Trig controversy to die.

You are playing into her hands. She doesn't care what you think. She could care less about all this "transparency" nonsense. She knows most Americans want to believe Trig is her son, and they will believe it no matter what is written. I confess I want to believe, and so I believe.

State of Alaska photo

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Conspiracy buffs cannot win on this one. All they can do is give Palin more fuel with which to fan the fires of rage against the media and the scary, out-of-control information technology of our day. She reaches deep into the fears of many in America when she talks about those bloggers in their bedrooms demanding proof she is Trig's mom. Those bloggers and their ugly cousins in the mainstream media could be attacking anyone.

Look at them swarming after some poor, everywoman from the small town of Wasilla in remote Alaska. What did she do to deserve this? Why are they so mean to her? Why do they hate her so for her simple, benign, common-sense conservatism?

Be afraid; be very afraid. These attack dogs know how to manipulate the Internet. They are into all that high-tech stuff. They could come after you next.

It is all pretty scary, isn't it? And in this game of fear mongering Trig has become Palin's ace in the game. She can play the Trig card any time she wants to illustrate the depraved cruelty of the bloggers, the mainstream media or anyone else who happens to write things about her she doesn't like. The Trig card is gold. Every time she plays it she gets at least triple victim points:

1.) She was a devout Christian woman forced to wrestle with the agonizing question of whether to have an abortion or give birth to a baby with Down syndrome.

2.) Having put her faith in the almighty that her pregnancy was God's will, she gave birth to Trig and is now a mother struggling to do her best to raise a child with special needs.

3.) And now those left-wing bloggers and media types -- and anyone who happens to disagree with her and is by definition a member of some left-wing conspiracy -- are mercilessly trying to pry into her private life in ways the media never pried into anyone else's.

All of these things hold some truth, too. She has admitted she agonized over Trig's birth, even going so far as to confess she thought about abortion. This is no small thing for a woman who makes much of her born-again Christianity. And there is no doubt that raising any child is a demanding task when you are on the road as much as Palin; it can't be made easier by trying to mother to a child with special needs. The media does tend to lean left. And, lastly, and maybe most importantly, the questions asked of Palin really are different than those asked of any other vice-presidential candidates.

Granted, there has been only one other female candidate for VP -- Geraldine Ferraro -- and there were no strange circumstances surrounding the births of any of her three children. She didn't keep any of her pregnancies secret for seven months. Nor did she portray herself as a pitbull in lipstick interested in becoming the attack dog for the Mondale-Ferraro ticket.

Palin was, in these ways, a lot different than Ferraro, but so what? Does this really warrant asking her to prove she is Trig's mother?