Barnes: When Bristol Palin Said That Abstinence ‘Is Not Realistic At All,’ She Meant That It ‘Actually Is Realistic’
Barnes: When Bristol Palin Said That Abstinence ‘Is Not Realistic At All,’ She Meant That It ‘Actually Is Realistic’
In an interview with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren earlier this month, Bristol Palin, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter who recently gave birth to a son, said that while she believes “everyone should be abstinent,” it is “not realistic at all“:
BRISTOL: But I think abstinence is, like — like, the — I don’t know how to put it — like, the main — everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all.
In a segment discussing the “Ups and Downs” of the past week, Fox News’ Mort Kondracke and Fred Barnes said on Saturday that Bristol Palin is now “the new face of teen pregnancy.” After playing a clip of Palin’s abstinence comments, Barnes claimed that what she was really saying was that “abstinence is actually realistic”:
BARNES: I guess so. That means she’s saying that abstinence actually is realistic. Either way, it’s certainly not fool proof. People slip, particularly teenagers, but not only teenagers.
Watch it:
As ThinkProgress has previously noted, abstinence-only education has proven to be completely unrealistic. Federal studies have found that abstinence-only sex education “does not keep teenagers from having sex. Neither does it increase or decrease the likelihood that if they do have sex, they will use a condom.”
In November 2007, 10 leading scientists in the field of adolescent sexual and reproductive health warned that abstinence-only education withholds “information that may be critical to protecting the health of young people.” This past April, health experts told Congress that abstinence-only education programs “have not cut teen pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases or delayed the age at which sex begins.”
Transcript:
KONDRACKE: Up, Bristol Palin. as the new face of teen pregnancy, she sparked the age-old debate. We’re giving her credit for her no-nonsense candid. Take a look.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRISTOL PALIN, DAUGHTER OF SARAH PALIN: Everyone should be abstinent, but it’s not realistic at all. It’s something that — I don’t know, you should just wait ten years. It’s so much easier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARNES: OK.
KONDRACKE: I guess so.
BARNES: I guess so. That means she’s saying that abstinence actually is realistic. Either way, it’s certainly not fool proof. People slip, particularly teenagers, but not only teenagers. I think the real story of her is what she did and what her mother did. She didn’t have an abortion when she became pregnant outside of marriage. And her mother, Sarah Palin, the governor, didn’t have an abortion when she learned the child she was bearing was going to be a Down’s syndrome child. The message is, even if it’s convenient, and nothing more than convenient, you don’t need an abortion.
KONDRACKE: Look, four words that I have to say here are: sex education and birth control. And Sarah Palin should have gone with both at home.
BARNES: That was five words.
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Barnes should know, his wife has been practicing it for years.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:50 amBRISTOL PALIN: Everyone should be abstinent, but it’s not realistic at all.
BARNES: That means she’s saying that abstinence actually is realistic.
Right is wrong
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:52 amUp is down
Welcome to wonderland where any statement can be turned into one supporting your own viewpoint.
Any fool can see that when Bristol Palin said that abstinence was unrealistic, she was actually saying the opposite.
That’s the way it works in Wingnuttia.
Just like when Obama said he wanted to cut taxes on the middle class, he was actually saying he wanted to create a communist utopia in America.
Make sense?
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:53 amBeltway Bums…
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:53 amI really, really, REALLY, must live in the GOP fantasy world where I can construe any possibility into whatever I feel.
For Instance:
Iraq is an imminent threat.
Unwarranted spying is good and constitutional.
No one could have imagined the magnitude of Katrina, and it’s subsequent death toll.
Picking Palin as a running mate would secure the presidency.
Geez, is it no wonder progressives live in the realm called “reality”?
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:54 amWhat’s a Fred Barnes…?
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:54 amfukwit.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:55 amFred Barnes: King of Dumbfckistan.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:55 amAnd then Barnes corrects Kondracke on how many words he used. What a tool.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:56 am.
Umm Fred…
… Notice how abstinence worked for Bristol?
Yep, realistic… NOT!!!
.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:56 amYou stay classy, Fred Barnes.
Not only did you sneak abortion into a discussion on abstinence, but you played the semantics card on Kondracke when he should have been playing it on you.
Abstinence is realistic, yes, but universal abstinence is not, and that’s what Bristol was talking about, was it not?
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:57 amHow absurd.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 pmTwo old grey geezers discussing anything at all to do with sexuality.
lol
must be a slow news day.
Bristol learned english from he mother. So up is down cold is hot black is white you get the idea. Luckily for we bizarros Fred is here to translate for us.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:01 pmIf you ever go to a dogwalking park, watch your step, or you might get some on your shoe.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:03 pmAbstinence is realistic? It’s the natural impulse to procreate when humans reach reproductive age that leads to sex that is unrealistic.
So blame God.
PEACE
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:03 pmAbstinence is so realistic, Bristol’s child is actually just a figment of her imagination.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:03 pmIn a segment discussing the “Ups and Downs” of the past week, Fox News’ Mort Kondracke and Fred Barnes said on Saturday that Bristol Palin is now “the new face of teen pregnancy.”
Since when should “the face” of teen pregnancy be a pampered , spoiled moron who is a high school drop-out , whose baby’s daddy is also a drop-out ?
That’s the message that America’s youth should be receiving ?
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:04 pmWar is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. Fred Barnes has a Frontal Lobe.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:04 pmWhy are cancervatives so warped and distorted when it comes to something so NATURAL as sex?
They’re SICK
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:05 pmsorry should have all raynman at #2 you nailed
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:05 pmRepublicans making up their own reality?
Who’d have thought?
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:05 pmgreenpagan Says:
What’s a Fred Barnes…?
____________
A big, steaming pile of…
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 pmWhich one, Trig or Tripp?
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 pmYou all don’t understand.
When Fred Barnes said she’s saying that abstinence actually is realistic, he meant that she said abstinence is not realistic at all.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 pmWell played, shoeless. ;)
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:12 pmFredo Barnes :
And the sky, today, turned green.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:17 pmNevar Says:
How absurd.
Two old grey geezers discussing anything at all to do with sexuality.
WHOAH there, pardner!!!! Two old grey GOP geezers, discussing TEENAGE SEX. Sounds like after dinner conversation for adult male GOOPERs, and doubling as their fantasies.
Grand Old P@d0ph$le Party.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:19 pmNow if we could get more wingnuts to really practice abstinence this country would really be on the road to recovery.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:19 pmI saw those two bozo’s in rerun; In reference to Palin and her daughter having their babies, Barnes said (I paraphrase) “See, people don’t need them there abortions”.
¶ AIO
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:20 pmThese two clowns have shown us another great reason to be pro-choice.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:22 pmBesides: look… the GOP takes its insurrectional political strategy from the Taliban. They also take their social policy strategies from the Taliban. Ah, the party that wants to make America the Xian Thoecracy to end all theocracies.
Conservatives are envious of the Taliban.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 pmWell, now we have further documented evidence that the only way in which conservative radical right-wing ideals in this country are peddled is through out-and-out fabrication.
Thank you for posting this, TP!!
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:26 pmFred Barnes, a pigment of his own emancipation…
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:26 pmInteresting….does Sarah Palin support birth control as a back up when her child is practicing abstinence? Nope! No way!
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:30 pmFred Barnes is the world’s most consistent assclown.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:32 pmFred Barnes’ comments mean that he supports the Obama Administration’s seeking criminal investigations into BushCo.
Doesn’t it? I mean that’s how I read it.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:34 pmBTW
Barnes’ fawning/singing the praises of Bristol and her mother , Bible Spice , for keeping their respective babies and eschewing abortion was just as nauseating and ridiculous.
Those 2 hillbilly baby factories are financially set , thanks to the gullibility and ignorance of Alaskan voters and the losers in the US who puzzingly want to view baby pics of a child whose parents are both nobody high school drop-outs……..
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:34 pmBRISTOL PALIN: Everyone should be abstinent, but it’s not realistic at all.
BARNES: That means she’s saying that abstinence actually is realistic.
Somebody stop the planet. I want to get off.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:35 pmIf there’s anyone who really knows what goes on in the heads of teen mothers in this country, then it’s definitely Fred Barnes.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:37 pmtombaker Says:
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:40 pm/sarcasm
HOW is it possible to be as stupid as these peole??? I don’t get it. I mean, how??
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:41 pmKondracke’s response should have been “Are you high?”
FauxNews, where you can phone it in and make up anything because no one with functional brain cells is listening.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 pmI think it’s safe to say that Sarah has brought her children up in an environment where ‘everything goes!’, but on the surface, she wants us to believe that she’s a strict christian who is moralistic and has high values. Typical right wing hypocrisy!
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 pmCageyCretin Says:
“Two old grey GOP geezers…”
That was implied, understanding that liberal progressives are sensitive, yet sensual, silver-maned sages.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:46 pmThose of us who are fortunate to still have manes, that is…
Fred Barnes – who gives a rat’s ass what this ass-licking Bush sycophant thinks.
This Neo-Clown is the biggest Jerk on T.V.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:52 pmBristol said that abstinence is not realistic. What she really meant to say was that abstinence is not realistic.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:52 pmDo these idiots really have anything substantial to contribute to the subject of sex? they’re like 98 freaking years old, geez. I bet when they ejaculate a jet of dust and hot air comes out.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:57 pmObviously, nanlichi, you don’t speak Wingnut very well.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:02 pmI believe that abstinence promotion doesn’t work, so maybe that’s why I believe that Bristol Palin was communicating that practicing abstinence isn’t realistic.
But, her comments were not clear, because she said that abstinence wasn’t realistic, but then she said that people should just wait 10 years.
‘Waiting 10 years’, could be taken by abstinence proponents as meaning abstaining for 10 years.
I take what she said as, abstinence doesn’t work and people should use other methods of pregnancy prevention until a more opportune time to have children; in your late twenties, early thirties.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:05 pmYeah well, who cares what some knocked up skank thinks? That skank apple did not fall far from the skanktree that’s for sure.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:09 pmI didn’t seem to me she knew exactly what she was trying to say.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:09 pmI did note the wistful chagrin on her face when she said people should wait 10 years…
Ralph, my Wingnut translator is on the blink. I got a disconnect notice from the electric company and took it to the bank to cash it. Silly shits must have lost their translator too, they just laughed at me.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:16 pmbackup Says:
——————————————————————————–
I believe that abstinence promotion doesn’t work, so maybe that’s why I believe that Bristol Palin was communicating that practicing abstinence isn’t realistic.
But, her comments were not clear, because she said that abstinence wasn’t realistic, but then she said that people should just wait 10 years.
‘Waiting 10 years’, could be taken by abstinence proponents as meaning abstaining for 10 years.
I take what she said as, abstinence doesn’t work and people should use other methods of pregnancy prevention until a more opportune time to have children; in your late twenties, early thirties.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Which makes all the sense in the world , seeing as how worldly , intelligent and a practitioner of what she preaches ; not to mention her tremendous genetic make-up and where she acquired it from ……….
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:20 pmGuido. Bristol should take some of the responsibility for the vagueness of her communication.
I don’t fault her at all. She is a teenage girl, going through a difficult experience. I empathize with her.
But, her comments were unclear. Is she saying to wait to have a baby or is she saying wait to have sex?
Bristol Palin shouldn’t be expected to be a savvy wordsmith. But, it’s possible the comment is intentionally vague, due to her relationship with Sarah Palin.
If Sarah is a proponent for abstinence and Bristol is trying to communicate that it is a bad idea for other teenagers to have children; Bristol is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The compromise is the vague comment, ‘wait ten years’. It delivers the message that you don’t want to be in my position, without definitively opposing her mother’s position.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:24 pmbrown acid. I just disagree with this. Bristol Palin is a girl just like any other. She didn’t pick her parents. What happened to her, is natural and could have happened to anyone.
I’m curious. What is it that makes you consider her a ’skank’?
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:32 pmWe can always count on b-cup to urge us to give right-wingers the benefit of the doubt.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:37 pmralph. Would you admit that the message is a little confusing if she says that abstinence is unrealistic and then she advises others to wait ten years?
What would have been clearer is to say abstinence is unrealistic, people shouldn’t rely on it to prevent unwanted pregnancy.
The confusion comes from ‘abstinence’ and ‘wait’ having similar meanings.
I could care less about Barnes, he seems like a jerk to me. But, I can honestly see the ambiguity of Bristol Palin’s comment.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:43 pmNot getting drawn into your labyrinths of faux-reasonableness anymore , b-cup. I’ve fallen for that gag too many times.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:44 pmI think everyone should completely stop using abstinence.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:49 pmThen you are no more honest than Fred Barnes.
What part of “not realistic at all” do you not understand?
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:51 pmFred Barnes being who he is, is now saying that this girl did not mean what she said. She actually meant something else. Something that only he fully understood. He understood it better than the girl who said it.
There you have it folks. The right wing psychic. He knows all and tells all. From now on, no one need be interviewed for comments. They only have to go to Fred Barnes.
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:54 pmB-cup: pwned.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:00 pmI guess when backedup’s wife says “not at all”, he thinks she is being ambiguous, until she scrathes his eyes out.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:08 pmOops, scratches.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:08 pm“…until she scrathes his eyes out.”
From what I’ve gathered, backedup’s “wife” thpeakth with a lithp anywayth.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:17 pmFred Barnes was paid by a lobbying firm who keeps the Palin (and the family) in the media…follow the money.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:25 pmGuido. Again, I oppose abstinence as a solution to unwanted pregnancy.
Here’s the problem.
Abstinence = refrain = resist doing something.
I watched the interview, Bristol states that Abstinence is not realistic at all. Then she advocates that people should wait.
When she says someone should wait, it’s similar to saying they should resist. The ambiguity is what they should resist. Should they resist having sex or should they resist having kids? Two different things. She doesn’t really say.
I believe that she means, they should resist having kids. But, then again, I oppose abstinence as a solution to address unwanted pregnancy.
I believe that it is possible that Bristol was intentionally ambiguous because her mother is an advocate for abstinence. I believe the ambiguity could have been a compromise between sending the message that other teens should not have kids, without definitively opposing her mother’s stand. But, it is still ambiguous.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:40 pmshoeless. This is a good point.
My question to you is this: ‘you should just wait 10 years’. Why doesn’t she elaborate. Why didn’t she add a few words: you should just wait 10 years to have kids?
I explained why I think she didn’t. And why it resulted in ambiguity. Why not give me your take?
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:52 pmWhat is with these people and their issues about sex education, safe sex, teenage hormones……. or Sex period??!?!?!!? Teens have Sex….America not only has the highest HS dropout rate, but America also has the highest rate of teen pregnancies, rape, incest. Abortion, nea a Woman’s right to choose, is the last thing they need to worry about. Will they ever get their priorities straight??!! Bristol Palin is scared to death of her Mother….that was clear! And Barnes, what the hell does about anything related to being a human?
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:06 pmWell, she’s not knocked up any more. She’s rugratified.
Listening to her intonation, it’s crystal clear what she was saying. Let me translate:
“Sure it’s a good idea: everybody should wait until they’re absolutely ready: married, good job, Mom not running for something so as to embarrass you in front of the whole country–but that’s not realistic. Things don’t work that way.”
She doesn’t explicitly say that abstinence education is impracical, but she says that everybody already knows the advice, and most even acknowledge that the advice is correct in a moral sense. But people will do things that are wrong and not good for you even so.
She’s right, and everybody knows it. WE shouldn’t have that Wendy’s Baconator or those chips, we should be out power walking instead of watching movies; we shouldn’t place bets on sporting events, we should floss, we should phone Mom more often, we should vvolunteer down at the nursing home.
Everybody knows these things. Even teenagers. Those librul teachers and that awful media, not to mention Mom & Dad, successfully put forth the messages.
But they also know what the world actually looks like at least by the time they’re in middle school. And having some adult simply repeat those messages is going to do absolutely precisely nothing.
I don’t make my bed in the morning.I don’t put shoe-trees in my shoes. I don’t brush my teeth in the restaurant bathroom before leaving. And I don’t dig dandelions out of my lawn. I’ve been well informed that I should do all these things. And at this late stage in my life, if somebody admonishes me about these things, I can tell you exactly how much good that’s going to do.
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:06 pmThe ambiguity in her comments are apparent in this post on the subject from a week ago:
Is this poster commenting on the contradictory nature of Bristol’s comment or am I reading it wrong?
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:12 pmralph. Neoclown charges that Bristol contradicts herself in 35 seconds when she claims that abstinence doesn’t work and that people should just wait. I assume that because the comment is a week old, Neoclown isn’t trying to give Barnes the benefit of the doubt on a comment he hasn’t made yet. He/she sees the contradiction.
If Neoclown sees a contradiction, is it unreasonable for me to see a contradiction? A contradiction that causes ambiguity?
I oppose the idea of abstinence. But, I see ambiguity in Bristol’s comments. It’s really there.
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:31 pmLet me head up to the San Fernando Valley and ask some locals to translate what Bristol was trying to tell us.
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:08 pmB-cup, I’ve seen this game from you before. Not playing. Find another sucker.
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:10 pmIt seems like people here are mixing up abstaining from sex with abstaining from having babies. Seeing as how birth control and abortion both exist, those aren’t necessarily the same thing. “Abstinence is unrealistic” when it comes to sex. But waiting to have babies is a good idea.
The term “abstinence” is often used in a completely misleading fashion. If you’re a virgin at 30, you can say you “have been abstinent.” But if you’re 15, it’s more correct to say you “intend to be abstinent.” In which case, the measurable factor is not abstinence itself, but intention to be abstinent. And the failure rate of “good intentions” is well documented as being awful.
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:38 pmElBruce. I agree. That’s why I agree with the progressive stands of more sex education and better access to birth control. Additionally, better access to condoms and the vaccination for HPV.
The only sticking point is the infringement of the rights of parents that don’t want that access, because they (wrongfully) believe it will encourage sexual activity.
February 23rd, 2009 at 6:25 pmThese RepubliCon fools don’t know what they are talking about.
February 23rd, 2009 at 7:58 pmWhen Fair and balanced equals revisionism and reverse interpretations.
Facts and truth have nothing to do with it and you can’t let those pesky facts and truths get in the way.
February 24th, 2009 at 2:54 amWhen you only teach your daughter abstinence you get to be called Grandma Sarah.
February 24th, 2009 at 8:56 amYou people . .
Always believing your LYING EARS!!
STOP IT!!
February 24th, 2009 at 11:18 am