Professor Deborah L. Rhode comments in the San Francisco Chronicle on the political impact that VP candidate Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy might have:

Obama's own mother "gave birth at age 18, so I don't think he wants to go there," said Deborah Rhode, an anti-discrimination legal scholar at Stanford University. "And Republicans have no choice but to kind of embrace this as an affirmation of life: She's keeping the baby, she's going to get married, this is what they want women in these circumstances to do."

It is a remarkable turnabout from 16 years ago, when former Vice President Dan Quayle attacked the popular TV comedy series "Murphy Brown" for portraying "a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid professional woman" who is "mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it 'just another lifestyle choice.' "