Don't mess with Pit Bull Sarah Palin's pups

Jennifer Harper:

Alaska has a new form of wildlife: Gov. Sarah Palin, who has turned into a mama tiger, or a grandmama tiger anyway, in defense of her young.

Mrs. Palin is engaging in an unusually personal attempt to protect her 18-year-old daughter Bristol from the inaccuracies of the press.

In three different accounts, journalists have described Miss Palin and/or her fiance Levi Johnston as "high-school dropouts."

Them there are fightin' words.

Mrs. Palin has personally contacted People magazine, the Associated Press and the Anchorage Daily News contesting Saturday's reports on the birth of Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, the unmarried couple's child and the governor's first grandchild.

The news organizations had blithely referred to the couple as "dropouts," leading the irked grandmother to set the record straight.

...

The AP and the Alaska paper were contacted by e-mail.

The governor was not done yet, however. Within hours, she released a terse statement about the academic status of the young parents - and the motherhood matter itself.

I get the feeling that she would have been much more effective on the campaign trail if this side of her personality had been unleashed. While the kids can technically be considered dropouts, she is right is insisting that they have not dropped their education and they will probably get their GED at the same time as the rest of their class. It is not a small point for those who think education is important and should not be thrown away because of difficult circumstances. Her statement on being teenage parents was also worthwhile. It showed a determination in favor of moral clarity on teen pregnancy.