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What makes you think this, Rick?
Yours,
Issodhos

My best guess - and this is only a guess, based on memories of being her age -- Bristol is used to a pretty comfortable life. Bristol is not stupid; single moms with a high school education don't live very well, and she probably knows that. She can't provide for her child on her own, certainly not very well, and she's still dependent (probably physically, financially, and emotionally) on her parents.

The other thing I would suggest is that I personally wouldn't want to face Sarah Palin in a knock-down drag-out; it's probably much worse for Bristol to face down her parents (separately or together.) There were a lot of people who lost arguments with Sarah Palin in the last year or so; I doubt her daughter was any different.

We're not talking some cupcake she can win an argument with (I'm betting). I wouldn't be Bristol Palin for all her youth. Sarah Palin runs that household, runs her kids, and runs her states - I'd be willing to bet on it.

I posted the link from Saturday Night Live.

Exploiting children - anyone's children - for gain is wrong, and especially when the children are humiliated and ridiculed. But, hey, it's politics and anyone and everyone is/was fair game.

It was wrong when the Republicans used Grover Cleveland's bastard child for political reasons. It was wrong when Margaret Truman - even though she was an adult - was abused by Republicans because of their dislike for Harry Truman. It was wrong when the Kennedy votaries exploited Caroline and John, Jr. for Democratic advantage. It was wrong when politicians of whatever stripe exploit their children for the "family values" freeze-frame. It was wrong when Rush Limbaugh applied a the dog reference to Chelsea Clinton. It was wrong when Sarah Palin exploited her children for campaign purposes. It is wrong when the Obama's use their children for political capital.

And it is no less wrong when David Letterman does it for entertainment. Wrong and stupid. But then we seem as a body politic to revel in being wrong and stupid, and that might account for the character of the so-called "leaders" that get puked-up to the top of the pot. There is also a lot of the "Bobby did it first" rationalization for continuing to do it, that we are naive to expect that anyone - least of all a popular entertainment personality - to say "Sorry, this is bad and wrong, and I'm not doing it."

One wonders what limits if any there are on such conduct? Could he have made a tasteless joke about the youngest Palin child, the one with Down syndrome, and still be defended on the grounds that he was a public figure and/or that his mother had also exploited him? Yeah, I'm sure that all interested in truth and fairness would have lined up behind him with a solid "You go, Dave!" Or perhaps, the writers had come up with a real zinger about the younger Obama daughter, one in which some term like pickaninny could be used? Golly, I somehow believe that the defenders of truth and fairness would trample each other to death in the stampede to get out of the door.

But, no sweat! This, too, will pass and Letterman's position and his ascendance over Conon O'Brien will remain untroubled...and the door will remain open to all comers to reprise that stellarly stupid outburst about some other young person. The next rude clod's defenders will still be intoning the same mantra: Public figure, and Bobby did it first. It will, as Issodhos observed, simply be yet another marker of the steady decay of civility and the coarsening of the public conversation.

Afterthought: A good thing thta Andy Jackson is not alive and not related to the Palins. Funny-boy Dave could then look forward to being called out for a duel or to being caned - but I'm sure his writers could use that as material as well.

I wouldn't dismiss Bristol as a violet shrinking next to her - crap - I'm lost for a good plant metaphor to describe her mother.... maybe the animal kingdom: a gazelle fleeing from a tiger (not our Gazelle though)...

Young people her age can surprise you, they can wake up one day and decide enough is enough, that they are fed up when it comes to a domineering parent. She could see through her mother using her as a prop, which is nothing more than an object.

Between the hormones and developing sense of autonomy of adolescence they can and often do say screw the comforts of home and decide to risk the cruel hard world on their own.

And that's without having had their egos built by being a celebrity in their own right like Bristol.

Don't you think an agent would sign Bristol in a Hollywood minute if she bolted from her parents and appeared unannounced at major talent agency?

If Paris Hilton (shown when she was 25 in 2005) could make it why not Bristol? They even look a little alike.

Paris Hilton has something that fascinates people: obscene amounts of money. People find Bristol Palin interesting because of her connection with her mother. Without her, what does she have to offer the Morris Agency? "Hi, I'm a teenaged single mom who is estranged from my mother, who was once a major political figure."

I'm not putting Bristol down at all; I think she's a fairly normal young woman. But she's a small-town girl with a famous mother. That's about it.

TEN PAGES??? Oh, well. Now off to read 'em.

Mellow, because she's a celebrity and people are truly intrigued by her, and if she had any developable talent expert agents can nurture it.

I can think of other small town girls (and boys) who made it big time in show business by dint of ambition and perseverance. Of course they need some talent, but there are many many people who are talented. Bristol Palin has a big edge because she's already famous.

I think that Mellow has it right. Sarah is not known for letting anyone breaking her control. She is a vindictive b*tch that doesn't like anyone crossing her.

If Bristol Palin does decide to bolt and sign an agent-then she would be fair game. But she hasn't, so she shouldn't be.

Kudzu? Crabgrass? Venus flytrap?

I don't know, PH came from a family with money and is somewhat more sophisticated than BP. Bristol might be one of those Warholian transients.