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I’m sure Levi’s mother feels the same way.</p>
<p>I feel bad for Bristol i think she was taken again, I wont watch any show with him on it. I dont watch a ton of those shows anyway. Just project runway</p>
<p>Getting pregnant, not finishing high school, giving interviews with personal info to national magazines - You can talk about their ages all you want, but I have to say I don’t think my son and daughter were ever this young. Makes me really count our blessings.</p>
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<p>The thing is, Bristol herself has sought being in the public eye…magazine articles, covers, interviews on TV, spokesperson, etc. It is not as if only Levi has gone public. And before all this, her own parents put her private life in the public eye. You’d have a point if it was all one sided and only Levi sought public attention about personal matters.</p>
<p>Here is how I see Levi…he is a high school dropout and his job prospects are not great. Meanwhile, he was afforded 15 minutes (OK, maybe more) of fame via the Palins and Sarah’s run for office, the convention, etc. and then obtained handlers who have floated other means whereby he can earn bucks and more fame and he is eating that up. It is not as if he has other prospects.</p>
<p>That’s how I see it too Soozie - if he had an ounce of charisma in his otherwise attractive self, he wouldn’t be struggling as much as he is with making a living off “celebrity.”</p>
<p>Keep in mind, however, that floating the “bucks and fame” carrot in front of a 20 year old is enticing and he is biting. That is compounded by the fact that he has no education or job anyway.</p>
<p>Sarah had Bristol in tow for the filming of her debut reality show in Homer the other day. </p>
<p>When Sarah was confronted by one Alaskan who questioned Sarah on choosing celebrity fame/money over fullfilling her term of elected service as governor, the following was recorded:</p>
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Ouch!</p>
<p>Read more: [Sarah</a> Palin gets in dustup with teacher - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com](<a href=“Palin gets in dustup with teacher - POLITICO”>Palin gets in dustup with teacher - POLITICO)</p>
<p>Has Sarah been elected to some national office since she resigned as Governor to which Bristol is referring? Did President Obama select Sarah to fill some administrative/executive position? Bristol has her GED, right?</p>
<p>The executive producer Canaan Rubin who is doing Levi’s reality isn’t a newbie. Seems he thinks Levi has what it takes for a reality show, apparently just like Sarah.</p>
<p>Question #1: Is it “trashy” to appear on a reality show?</p>
<p>Question #2: How is Levi being enticed by bucks and fame different than the others?</p>
<p>Levi had a job, a lucrative one on the North Slope, and lost it. Here’s the story:</p>
<p>[Levi</a> Johnston quits oil field job: Former Gov. Sarah Palin | adn.com](<a href=“http://www.adn.com/2009/01/05/643519/levi-johnston-quits-oil-field.html]Levi”>http://www.adn.com/2009/01/05/643519/levi-johnston-quits-oil-field.html)</p>
<p>This is the kind of position that is coveted in Alaska. </p>
<p>I wonder what would have become of Levi if he’d managed to keep the job?</p>
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<p>I didn’t know Sarah was filming a TV show. </p>
<p>It’s not really different that much but one difference is that Sarah has other ways to earn money and for Levi, it likely is even more enticing to think of fame and fortune when he has few other means to obtain it. </p>
<p>As far as Bristol, I see Levi and Bristol in the same boat as one another in terms of seeking the limelight.</p>
<p>That’s what gets me. So Levi’s not qualified for the oil field job and goes and starts a theatrical career. What would we have him do? He has found a legal way to earn money. I say, good for him.</p>
<p>He has managed to do this when a lot of the people his approximate age are struggling to find employment and service huge educational debt even with colllege degrees. He doesn’t seem so “dumb” after all.</p>
<p>[Finding</a> A Job Is Hard For Even The Most Educated : NPR](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125223926]Finding”>Finding A Job Is Hard For Even The Most Educated : NPR)</p>
<p>I wonder what would have happened if Sarah had just served out her coveted term as governor without the presidential campaign. I think a lot would have been different in Bristol and Levi’s life.</p>
<p>07Dad, I thought that he said that the worst allegation, that Sarah called her infant son a “■■■■■■,” was not true.</p>
<p>I would not have used the term, “trash,” to describe Levi. One word that often comes to mind (the kindest), is “callow.” I also find him smug. </p>
<p>Although I agree that Bristol is seeking the limelight, I find it hard to think badly of her. I think she’s a rather sweet young woman doing her best to be a good mother to her son as she finds her way in life under difficult circumstances.</p>
<p>This is why I view Levi differently: He lived in the Palin house for some months, I believe the better part of a year. He took advantage of the Palins’ generosity to fling nasty allegations against Sarah. The worst was the lie about her attitude toward her son, but he also said that the Palins were always fighting and would probably get a divorce. Even if this were true, it would be wrong to broadcast the information. I was particularly annoyed by his smug comments about Sarah being a bad mother because she didn’t always make dinner, and sometimes he and Bristol had to throw a steak on the grill for the family. Why would he expect a woman who was governor of the state, with an office 600 miles away, to make every meal, and why wouldn’t he be happy to contribute to the household in this way?</p>
<p>I’ve got another word: Neanderthal.</p>
<p>NYMomof2, Sarah sold both Bristol and Levi out to further her own ambitions, and in so doing rewrote their life stories. They’re not the only ones in Alaska that have been steamrollered by her greed for fame and money.</p>
<p>It does seem that there is a lot of desire to grade Levi’s papers for how he is alleged to have maligned Sarah. </p>
<p>I take Sarah and Sherry Johnston both as just people, warts and all. But they are fully grown age-wise. I saw comments made in Bristol’s pleadings that must have hurt Sherry in Bristol’s attempt to control access to Tripp.</p>
<p>To me, Bristol and Levi and their actions towards each other and Tripp are what “count.” I see very little qualitative difference in parents who are absent part of the time from the child’s life due to work based on what the work is. That includes whether “the job” is on the oil fields on the Alaskan slopes or in Hollywood filming or 600 miles away as an elected official. </p>
<p>Neither Bristol nor Levi is a poster child for parenting, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try. I’ve not seen any aspect of this that does not play out daily in domestic relations courts across the country.</p>
<p>IMO if Bristol’s willingness to cooperatively co-parent with Levi is based in any part on how or whether Levi and Sarah do or don’t get along, she is doing Tripp a grave disservice. Similarly, if Levi lets his feelings about Sarah or her fellings about him diminish his co-parenting efforts and cooperation with Bristol on these issues, he is letting Tripp down.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t see how Bristol moving back in at Sarah’s is good for Tripp. Bristol is going to have a relationship with Tripp’s father. The important question for Tripp is whether that relationship supports cooperative co-parenting.</p>
<p>I hope that I am wrong and that Bristol and Levi can cooperatively co-parent whereever Bristol lives.</p>
<p>Tiredofsnow, Please don’t mistake me for a Sarah Palin admirer! I agree that she shamelessly used Bristol and Levi during the presidential campaign. I consider her one of the worst politicians around, ignorant and dishonest. If I thought she had any chance of being president, I’d jump off a cliff. But I don’t think she deserves some of the things that have been done to her.</p>
<p>Hey, I’ve thought of a new way for Bristol to make more money. It would be a spinoff on the old Brooke Shields/Gloria Vanderbilt jeans ad campaign. Something like “Nothing comes between me and my Levi…except my mom.”</p>
<p>Oh, that’s funny, GA2012Mom. That’s a joke worth selling.</p>
<p>I am just stunned by how easily Bristol has been able to find work. Despite obviously not practicing abstinence, Bristol was hired by Candies Foundation to serve as a spokesperson for abstinence.</p>
<p>With just a GED, she was hired as an “office manager” for a dermatologist in Anchorage --then abruptly moved back to Wasilla, which I assume meant quitting that job? (Do you think she gave two weeks notice?)</p>
<p>Working as a celebrity she sold her story of her re-engagement to Levi to US magazine (and let her mother find out about the engagement through the news media).</p>
<p>Now Bristol is back living in her mother’s house – and I’m guessing on payroll for Sarah’s new TV show, despite Bristol’s dissing of Levi as a fame whore.</p>
<p>Her next step undoubtedly will be running against Levi for mayor of Wasilla, thus earning her own competing reality TV show. (Why else would she be moving back home right now?!)</p>
<p>“Question #1: Is it “trashy” to appear on a reality show?”</p>
<p>Well, no, not “appearing” on a show. I don’t think there’s anything trashy about being featured on, say, the Amazing Race or Trading Spaces.</p>
<p>But having your own reality show that’s just about your life? Totally trashy. The classiest one I can think of is Kathy Griffin’s, which is totally tongue in cheek and self-derogatory, and which Levi’s already been on. I mean, the Kardashians? Real Housewives? Jessica Simpson? The Hills? Trash.</p>
<p>I say this as someone who enjoys many a reality show guilty pleasure, and (as I said upthread) would TOTALLY sell the story of my last breakup to US magazine for $100k. (I wouldn’t deny that I was doing something trashy, either.) I don’t know what they’re offering Sarah et al. for the show, but my guess is millions, and I would be willing to be pretty damn trashy on TV for millions. So I can’t say that I disapprove.</p>
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Seems to me that it’s worse if Sarah is capable of making a real living but chooses to seek fame and fortune in reality shows, while Levi is doing the best he can with what he has.</p>