IN Desperate Housewives, Bree Hodge faked a pregnancy to protect her teenage daughter Danielle, who gave birth to a boy.
Wisteria Lane shenanigans, apparently, has a mirror site in the wild, wild world of rumour-mongering that is now targeting Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
Suddenly, all the buzz on last week’s Democratic National Convention, when Barack Obama was crowned the first African-American presidential nominee, seemed so yesterday.
Within two days of Palin’s appointment as the running mate of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, the chatter began that her five-month-old son was not hers, but the child of her unwed eldest daughter Bristol.
The rumour was quashed when news came that 17-year-old Bristol is pregnant and Palin is due to become a grandma at 44, just in time for Christmas, as they say.
Americans have been riveted with guilty pleasure over tales about Palin’s past. She was a former local beauty queen and was once a fearsome basketball player, with the nickname Sarah Barracuda.
At the age of 24, Palin eloped with her boyfriend as they were cash-strapped for a wedding.
Now, her significant half has not been spared the public scrutiny either. Her husband, the “First Dude”, reportedly did not complete his degree and was arrested for drunk driving 22 years ago.
There was an account, too, of how her Wikipedia entry was somewhat mysteriously spiced up just hours before the official announcement of her vice-president candidacy.
And what about Bristol’s teenage boyfriend? His MySpace page has been removed and reporters who went to his mother’s house, according to an Anchorage local daily, found that the place was just like any other Alaskan home – decorated with moose and caribou antlers.
Nothing has been spared in the search for skeletons in Palin’s closet; even her social security number has allegedly been stolen. Entertainment magazines which usually put celebrities first have placed her on their cover, though not necessarily in a positive light.
“No one heard of her before last week,” said Kelly McBride, The Poynter Institute’s ethics group leader.
“Now, people are digging deeper because you’re talking about someone who has the potential to become the vice-president. The stakes can’t get higher than that.”
However, McBride felt that the media scrutiny should be in the right manner, to protect people such as Palin’s children.
“We must minimise harm to them. These matters must be handled with care,” she said, noting also that the twin daughters of President George W. Bush received much coverage last time for their antics.
Much of the public debate has focussed on whether Palin, as a mother of five, can handle the heat that the job of vice-president brings.
They ponder whether she should have taken up the VP offer, as it could mean lesser time for her family, especially her youngest son who has Down Syndrome.
“Certainly, these are questions that would not be asked if the candidate is not a woman,” McBride said. “But in reality, women play a different role than men.”
(American society, in a way, is still traditional. Marriage announcements in The New York Times would include whether the bride is keeping her name or not. This, surely, is no longer a question that arises anymore for Malaysian women.)
Just like Hillary Clinton – critics poked fun at the way she laughed – Palin is now under the microscope for things such as her hair and spectacles.
As one TV news commenter put it, unfortunately some people found it intolerable that a woman with big hair and librarian glasses could be governing them one day.
But even in the blue state of New York where Obama fans are aplenty, Palin’s family problems merely made her more human to them. To them, it does not speak lesser of her as a mother or an individual.
“So what if her eldest daughter is pregnant? Her children has nothing to do with it. Lots of American girls get knocked up at an early age,” said Kimberly Blackette, a law student and Obama supporter.
Palin, in an e-mail sent out to supporters on Aug 30, wrote: “Some of life’s greatest opportunities come unexpectedly, and this is certainly the case for me.
“I never set out to run for office. But life has taken me on a course that first led to the Alaska governor’s office and now the country’s first female Republican vice presidential candidate.”
Palin power, as the Republicans called it, resonated the following day after her acceptance speech at the party convention.
For those on her side of the fence, one headline went to the extent of saying that “a star is born”.
And messages of encouragement have appeared everywhere from T-shirts to thongs in Alaska. One declares: “Our mama beats your Obama.”
