I don't know who created the definition for "right" in these situations or when the definition was created, but I know how it works. I grew up with it. As long as a situation is "made right" (no matter how wrong it seems... as in to have a teenage daughter marry a teenage boy... or, even crazier, to have a mom secretly take over the raising of their daughter's child), it is accepted. That is the code that I saw growing up. To "make things right" you do whatever it takes so that your family is not publicly shamed (even though people whisper about it and know the "real deal"). (By the way... that can even mean abortion as long as no one knows about it.)

My biggest frustration with this whole debacle is not that the daughter is pregnant or even that this may be her second child. My biggest frustration is that the "religious right" is so adamant about speaking out against these things and would completely ridicule and condemn others on this issue, but when it becomes one of their own, they smooth it over and downplay it.

I appreciate the integrity of Senator Obama's response. Instead of stirring up the hype, he very succinctly and pointedly said:

"People's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories."

"We don't go after people's families. We don't get them involved in politics. It's not appropriate and it's not relevant. Our people were not involved in any way in this and they will not be. If I ever thought that it was somebody in my campaign who's involved in something like that, they'd be fired."

I admire the way Senator Obama handles sensitive issues. I don't know that his consideration of people will get Barack elected. It seems as if the overt condemnation of people (despite the hypocritical nature) wins more votes. But his response definitely adds to my reasons for believing he is the right man for the job. Senator Obama creates the moral and political leadership our country needs.

For those out there who believe in his moral and political integrity, trust me, we have a lot of work to do to get him elected. It is not going to be easy. Any mis-steps Sarah Palin might make will not be enough to hand us the election.