Sarah Palin Confirms 17-year-old Daughter is Pregnant

Sarah Palin came face-to-face with the hard reality of the media examination she will undergo as John McCain's surprise choice of running mate Monday when she was forced to confirm her unmarried school age daughter was pregnant.

The revelation immediately renewed questions about the extent to which Palin, who had been relatively unknown before McCain announced her as his vice-presidential choice on Friday, had been thoroughly vetted.

Palin, the vice-presidential candidate and new star of the Republican party, was in St Paul, Minnesota, Monday to rally Republican convention delegates after being dispatched by McCain the previous night. The Republicans are trying to salvage their convention, which has been disrupted by media attention having switched to Hurricane Gustav.

Palln, soon after her arrival, was caught up in questions about her private life. In response, the McCain campaign team issued a statement on her behalf stating her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant.

Palin, who campaigns on a Christian, anti-abortion ticket, said the couple planned to marry: "We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents."

The fact that her daughter is to marry and have the baby may blunt any negative reaction among any of the party's social conservatives concerned about sex before marriage. The news could even help consolidate the image of Palin and her family as typical of the average American home.

The slow emergence of details about Palin's life, partly as a result of reporters who landed en masse in her tiny home town of Wasilla in Alaska, raised concerns about whether she had been properly vetted by McCain's campaign team or whether the usual procedures had been dispensed with because of McCain's impulsive choice.

McCain's team insisted Monday that he had known about the pregnancy before offering her the job.

A McCain spokesman, Steve Schmidt, said: "Senator McCain's view is this is a private family matter."

Since McCain's announcement of his vice-presidential pick on Friday, journalists examining Palin's life have begun to flesh out her biography, in particular her lack of political experience, in particular in foreign affairs.

Mark Salter, a McCain adviser, said the campaign announced the pregnancy to rebut rumors from internet bloggers that Sarah Palin's son Trig, born in April with Downs syndrome, was actually born to Bristol and that Sarah had claimed to be the mother.

The appointment of Palin is intended to mark a change in strategy by McCain. Having concluded it is not enough to challenge Obama over his lack of foreign experience and to push his own narrative as a Vietnam war hero, he is hoping to appeal to the working-class and the lower middle class, and believes that Palin has the right credentials for attracting these blue-collar workers.

With the absence from the convention of McCain and President George Bush, who had been scheduled to make a prime-time speech last night at the convention but diverted instead to Texas to be seen to be on hand at the Hurricane Gustav emergency center, Palin, the First Lady Laura Bush and McCain's wife, Cindy, led a push to raise delegates' spirits.

Laura Bush, who was scheduled to appeal from the podium for help for hurricane victims rather than make a politically tinged speech as planned, acknowledged the frustration of delegates over the cancellation of the first day of the four-day convention.

"I know they're disappointed they're not going to get to have the program tonight, but everyone understands it, everyone is thinking about everybody all across the Gulf Coast," she told CBS television.

All but two hours of the conference were canceled Monday and delegates were asked to avoid partying. A cocktail party planned for last night 'Spirits of Minneapolis' was re-titled 'Spirits of the Gulf Coast' and turned into a fundraiser for the American Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund.

The Republicans are hoping to resume normal business Tuesday or at least Wednesday. As long as they can have two full days of prime-time viewing, finishing as planned on Thursday night, they believe the can secure enough media attention to judge the convention a success.

While Gustav reminded the public of the failure of Bush to deal with the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, McCain's campaign team sought to turn it to their advantage. The cancellation of the first day of the convention sent out a message that McCain cared, contrasting with the Bush's seeming indifference in the days immediately after Hurricane Katrina.

McCain admitted on ABC News hat he was frustrated at the loss of part of the convention but added: "This is just one of those moments in history where you have to put America first."The hurricane diverted media attention from the Republican convention, with almost all the anchormen and women from the main networks having flown to New Orleans.

McCain is hoping he can get them back for Palin's speech Wednesday and his own on Thursday.

Rick Davis, one of McCain's campaign advisers, said Monday would be "business only and will refrain from political rhetoric", and after that decisions would be taken on a day-to-day basis.