Condition that sets the candidates apart

I BELIEVE the attitudes of Sarah Palin and Barack Obama to teenage pregnancy justly explains the difference between the two.

Obama said he would favour abortion because he wouldn’t like “to punish” his daughter with a baby. This is double-speak when really a parent does punish a teenage girl with so invasive an operation as an abortion.

But Obama wants to seem empathetic and understanding on so divisive an issue. But for the reluctant grandparent, teenage abortion is often the easy way out.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, has greeted her daughter’s crisis pregnancy with bravery and a motherliness that is in itself touching. Many wonder if her daughter’s teenage pregnancy has cast a shadow over McCain’s hopes of the presidency.

I would take the opposite stance. I would see in Sarah Palin as someone who will take a crisis head-on.

The term ‘crisis pregnancy’ is not an accidental term. It derives form the Greek ‘krisis’, meaning decision. She will take the decision that may not be easiest for her, but will be best for her daughter.

The irony is that strong decision-making is usually a trait associated with the male.

Mary O’Regan

‘Murlough’

18 Firgrove Drive

Bishopstown

Cork