More reactions:

IPW's chairman Roger Hughes interviewed by the Des Moines Register about the Palin news' impact

Roger Hughes, a delegate from Webster City, said the situation’s political impact remains to be seen, although he does not expect it to hurt Palin’s support among the party’s Christian right.

“It certainly will put a damper on some people, but in the Christian evangelical movement, it’s going to be all right,” he said.

Hughes said some undecided voters could decide McCain was bold to put Palin on the ticket, considering a campaign official said McCain knew about the pregnancy before he picked her.

Others might consider the move an unwise risk and turn away from the GOP ticket, although it is too early to tell, Hughes said.

“We’re not going to know in the first few days how it’s going to play out,” Hughes said. “There are too many emotions.”

McCain camp reacts to media coverage

McCain's campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, yesterday lashed out at what he deemed ``offensive'' and ``demeaning'' coverage and questions from reporters after McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, confirmed her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant.

``It used to be that a lot of those smears and the crap on the Internet stayed out of the newsrooms of serious journalists,'' Schmidt said at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Dr. James Dobson: "Being a Christian does not mean you're perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect"

"... [the Palins] should be commended once again for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances.

"Being a Christian does not mean you're perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord. I've been the beneficiary of that forgiveness and restoration in my own life countless times, as I'm sure the Palins have.

"The media are already trying to spin this as evidence Gov. Palin is a 'hypocrite,' but all it really means is that she and her family are human. They are in my prayers and those of millions of Americans."

NY Sun: McCain in charge

The unifying thread connecting many of this week's tumultuous events — the scaling back of much of the Republican National Convention due to Hurricane Gustav, the canceling of President Bush's speech to delegates, and even the selection of the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as Mr. McCain's running mate — is the reintroduction to America of Mr. McCain outside of Mr. Bush's shadow...

Boston Herald: Sarah Palin's one cool customer; Millions of mothers can relate to Palin

...the 2008 presidential campaign officially has more plot twists than an episode of “Lost.” It also has two legitimate stars: Barack Obama, descended from the heavens to heal our souls and deliver our nation; and Sarah Palin, who wandered in from the Alaska wilderness with a rifle under one arm and a baby in the other.

... Does her daughter’s pregnancy provide the opening Democrats need? It’s too early to say, but my guess is no. In fact, if anything, this storyline is likely to help the McCain/Palin ticket.

First, it will drive the ratings for Palin’s speech tomorrow night through the roof. I’ve been predicting that the tune-in for her speech would be second only to Obama’s “Night at the Parthenon” show. If the McCain campaign leaks word that Palin’s going to address her daughter’s pregnancy, she may surpass him.

Second, this story will appeal to the women voters Palin was always put on the ticket to target - not the hard-core Hillary Lefties, but the swing, suburban moms...

Her daughter’s pregnancy highlights another part of Palin’s appeal. Her normalcy. Here’s a woman who has run a business, raised a family, who is sending a son off to Iraq, who has another son with a disability, and now has to help her teenage daughter face motherhood. These are experiences that millions of American moms have shared, can relate to and understand.

Sarah Palin is as accessible as Obama is exotic.

LA Times: With Palin revelations, McCain gamble is clearer

For every piece of the portrait of Palin that the McCain campaign sketches, a far more complicated picture of the Alaska governor is drawn.

The youthful mother of five whose placement on the ticket was meant to reinforce traditional values has now revealed that her unmarried teenage daughter is pregnant -- a piece of information that the family and the campaign said they had hoped to keep private.

Time: In Alaskan hometown, pregnancy was no secret

People in Wasilla are Alaskan tough, so not only does a thing like teen pregnancy not seem like anyone's damn business, but it's also not seen as the calamity so many people in the lower 48 might think it is.

This is dangerous country — it's not just the roughneck jobs on cable reality shows. It's real life here.

I listened to the absolutely heartbreaking story of how the godfather of Track Palin, Sarah's oldest son, died in small plane crash just minutes after having dropped off four kids.

Another family invited me into their home and told their incredible story; with one son in Iraq, their other son was working on a conveyor line in Anchorage, got caught in the belt and had his head partially crushed. He lived to stand across the kitchen table from me and his parents, looking fully healed just three months later, grinning at his dumb luck and wondering what comes next in life.

"It makes you realize that a thing like a little teenage pregnancy isn't such a big deal," his mom said. "Bristol—and lots of other girl like her out there — are going to be just fine."

NYTimes: In political realm, 'family problem' emerges as test

In the short term, though, this disclosure served to illustrate — though presumably not in the way the McCain campaign would have preferred — just how much Mr. McCain’s selection of Ms. Palin has helped among conservatives. They not only rallied around Ms. Palin, but praised her daughter for deciding to marry and have the baby.

“The media is already trying to spin this as evidence that Governor Palin is a hypocrite,” said James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family. “But all it really means is that she and her family are human.”

He commended her for “not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances.”

Politico: New Palin details may help, not hurt

So far — and it is hard to tell what the future may hold for Palin’s unexpected national candidacy — the travails of the Palin family probably seem awfully familiar to many average Americans. It is this averageness that makes her such a politically promising running mate for John McCain — and such a dangerous opponent for Democrats. Many voters will find it easy to identify with her family’s struggles — a significant advantage in an election where the voting calculus is so unusually and intensely personal. 

Ben Smith: The Palin chronicles

I can't remember the last introduction to the national scene this rocky, and it gets worse every hour — and even before the investigative reporters have settled in to Anchorage.

Just got off the flight to St. Paul to find, in my inbox: a second source confirming her past membership in a secession-minded fringe group, her lawyering up in an inquiry the AP slugged "Troopergate," and — insult to injury — another woman claiming she was actually Miss Congeniality in the Miss Wasilla '84 contest.

The name on the tongues of gleeful Dems, meanwhile: Eagleton.

Meanwhile, back at the GOP convention...

Laura Bush, Cindy McCain urge relief

Laura Bush and Cindy McCain took the convention stage in St. Paul briefly early tonight to urge delegates and others watching at home to help victims of Hurricane Gustav.

The first lady and her potential successor received loud and extended applause from delegates, but both were careful to avoid any language that could be construed as political.

Sex dominates GOP's opening day

The big story on the first day of the Republican National Convention had nothing to do with politics. It had everything to do with sex, which some consider almost as exciting.

Everybody on and off the convention floor was chattering about how the 17-year-old daughter of John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, is five months pregnant and unmarried.

And while being pregnant and unmarried is hardly a phenomenon in America these days, it was not supposed to be the major talking point of the convention’s opening day.

The McCain campaign said it knew about the pregnancy of Bristol Palin before her mother was placed on the ticket, and campaign operatives were quick to spread the word that the whole matter makes the Palin family look even more “real” and even more committed in its opposition to abortion.

Bristol will not only have the baby, campaign operatives pointed out, but will marry the father of her child. Which is an example, they said, of American values.

“Life happens,” McCain spokesman Steve Schmidt said.

Some turn violent in march to GOP convention

Two delegations attacked by protestors

Protesters harassed two state delegations in St. Paul to attend the Republican National Convention Monday. Someone threw a rock through the window as delegates from Alabama rode their bus to the Xcel Energy Center, where Republican National Convention events took place. And masked protesters confronted and harassed the Connecticut delegation — several of them were spat upon, roughed up and doused with a mixture of water and bleach.