Palin: 'My teenage daughter is pregnant'

John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin said today that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter was five months pregnant.

The announcement was aimed at rebutting internet rumours that Palin’s youngest son, born in April, was actually her daughter’s.

A statement released by the presidential campaign in St Paul, Minnesota, said Bristol Palin would keep her baby and marry the child’s father.

Bristol Palin is five months pregnant, and the baby is due in late December.

“Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents,” Sarah and Todd Palin said in the brief statement.

“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realise very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family,” they added.

Sarah Palin’s son Trig was born in April with Down’s syndrome. Internet bloggers have been suggesting that the child was actually born to Bristol Palin but that her mother, the Alaska governor, claimed to be the mother.

McCain adviser Mark Salter said the campaign announced the daughter’s pregnancy to rebut those rumours.

Senior McCain advisers said the Arizona senator and his top aides had known about Bristol’s pregnancy before offering Palin the No 2 spot on the Republican ticket for the November 4 election.

“Senator McCain’s view is this is a private family matter. As parents, (the Palins) love their daughter unconditionally and are going to support their daughter,” said McCain spokesman Steve Schmidt.

Schmidt added: “Life happens.”

As Democratic workers and journalists headed to Alaska to find out more about Mrs Palin, questions were being raised about Mr McCain's judgment.

It emerged the Arizona senator had only met her once before offering her the job.

She has been governor of Alaska for two years and was previously a small-town mayor, but little else is known about her.

The Anchorage Daily News in Alaska reported that she was originally in favour of the controversial “Bridge to Nowhere” project, which would have connected Gravina Island and Ketchican International Airport, before changing her mind and highlighting that she was against it in the speech introducing her as Mr McCain’s running mate on Friday.

The 44-year-old former beauty queen hunts, eats moose burgers, ice fishes, and rides snowmobiles.

Her pro-life stance and devout Christianity will appeal to anti-abortion conservative and evangelical elements of the Republican Party, groups which Mr McCain has struggled with, and could prove crucial in key battleground states such as Ohio and Michigan.

She has also tried to win the support of former backers of Hillary Clinton, appealing for women voters to help her “shatter that glass ceiling once and for all”.

But serious questions have been raised over her ability to stand in as America’s commander-in-chief should anything happen to 72-year-old Mr McCain.

An editorial in the Alaskan Daily News-Miner read: “Republicans rightfully have criticised the Democratic nominee Barack Obama for his lack of experience but Palin is a neophyte in comparison.

“Palin is not ready for the top job. It’s clear that McCain picked Palin for reasons of image, not substance.”

Many US political pundits ruled out the self-styled “hockey mum” because her office remains under investigation over the dismissal of a commissioner who refused to fire her former brother-in-law.

Mrs Palin allegedly used her office to take revenge and results from part of the ethics investigation will be released on October 31, five days before the general election.

As governor, Mrs Palin and her aides allegedly pressurised, and then fired, public safety commissioner Walter Monegan for not sacking her former brother-in-law Mike Wooten, an Alaskan state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with her sister.

Mrs Palin first denied that she, or anyone in her administration, had ever pressurised Mr Monegan on the issue.

Then, earlier this month, she admitted half a dozen members of her administration had made more than two dozen calls to state officials on the matter – but added that she had not known about them.

But at the weekend Mr Monegan claimed Mrs Palin had talked to him on two occasions about Mr Wooten, and had emailed him two or three times about the issue, without mentioning him by name.