Though it probably won't change the course of the election in the least, Levi Johnston, the father of Bristol Palin's baby, gave a rare interview with the Associated Press. Just in case you're curious, and . . . oh, fine. I am. Here's what Levi had to say:
On weddings, shotgun:
"None of that's true. We both love each other. We both want to marry each other. And that's what we are going to do.''
So...? Boy/girl?
No names were discussed but he said, 'I'm looking forward to having him. I'm going to take him hunting and fishing. He'll be everywhere with me.''
That dicey "I don't want kids" MySpace page?
Levi says it was created by his friends a couple of years ago as a joke.
On his relationship with Bristol:
'We were planning on getting married a long time ago with or without the kid. That was the plan from the start.''
To see thoughts on his Bristol tattoo and fatherhood, read more.
How the AP described Levi:
"Johnston is an avid hunter. He's dark haired, tall and muscular, sports a bit of stubble and drives a red Chevy Silverado truck. He'd be the perfect cover for Field & Stream."
On the Bristol finger tattoo:
He says he lost a promise ring Bristol gave him on a caribou hunt, and figured the ink was less likely to go missing.
Has the attention changed him?
"I'm still the same old boy. I'm just a workin' man.''
So. . . you're going to be a dad? You ready?
''We're up for it. I'm excited to have my first kid. It's going to be a lot of hard work but we can handle it.''
Who's going to win the election?
''I just hope she wins. She's my future mother-in-law. She better win.''
So nope, not a story with hard-hitting policy points or sentiments with global reach and import, but fun? Your thoughts on Levi? Is he the "Wasilla heartthrob" the AP says he is?
Hanii Y
Yeah. Whatever.
1I'll take my cocky prettyboy politically involved city boys over this "Wasilla heartthrob" anyday.
'We were planning on getting married a long time ago with or without the kid. That was the plan from the start.''
And how long ago was this, they're still teenagers. I don't begrudge a mistake, no ones perfect especially that young. But all of this posturing and covering up makes me want to vomit.
2Good for them!
3He is handsome, and taking responsibilty , what more could you ask? I dont think there is any posturing or covering up here.
4Sounds like his heart is in the right place but I think it's sad he dropped out of high school. He only had a year left.
5'We were planning on getting married a long time ago with or without the kid. That was the plan from the start.''
How old are they again?
6He is 18, she is 17. Old enough to know better, but old enough to start a life together.
7Woop - Yea thats what struck me too. He really should have finished that last year. Maybe he will get a GED.
8I wonder what a long time ago is for a 17 and 18 year old.
9Doesn't matter how young I think they are- it is their life and their choice. Wish them lots of luck.
10I don't understand why people have to hate on them. Are they not deserving of a good life?
11the romance of the century, to be sure...
12no one is painting it as a great romance. i dont get that.
13unnecessary snarkiness. She could have just gotten an abortion and saved them both a lot of embarrassment. I admire their decision to step up. At least they didn't take the easy way out.
14I have nothing against this couple. I hope they raise a happy and healhty child. But, I doubt he would have proposed if she wasn't pregant and her mom was running for VP.
15I'm not hating on them (if anything I'm hating on their parents). I believe that he can love her and be committed to the baby and her without getting married. In the eyes of the law she isn't mature enough to vote, but she's supposed to have the insight to know if she's ready to get married. No I definitely don't hate them, if anything it saddens me to see young people rush into something without truly understanding what their rushing into and I didn't even realize he dropped of school. If that true thats really unfortunate and I have a hard time believing any parent would support that if they had anyway to help their children financially (assuming the child wasn't typically reckless) for a few years.
16because they want to get married its seen as unnessasary? In the eyes of the law she cant vote, therefore she cant be mature enough to make a decision like that? that doesnt make sense. If you are old enough to rush into having sex, than you can make the decisions that come with the consequences.
17Just to address a few of the comments above, I think the article said they had been dating since freshman year of high school.
So, you know, they're that couple. Either she was going to get pregnant and they'd have to get married or they'd break up shortly after high school graduation.
18It just seems like there is no right decision. I mean, would people be happier if she would have gotten an abortion? Is that the right answer?
If he walked out and they didn't get married, is that the right answer?
They are getting married and trying to do the best they can for their family, yet even still THAT is not acceptable.
I just don't get it. They are doing what they think is best and I would hope that people respect that and see it as the best choice, maybe not for you, but they think it is for them. We could all stand to be a bit less judgemental.
19I wish them the best of luck.
"created by his friends a couple of years ago as a joke," my ass, however.
20"So, you know, they're that couple. Either she was going to get pregnant and they'd have to get married or they'd break up shortly after high school graduation."
The third option could've been they get married and live a long and happy life together. It does happen.
21I'm not suggesting she was old enough to have sex...clearly she wasn't, but she did and now she has deal with consequences, but dealing with the consequences means stepping up and being a good mom, not adding the extra stress of a relationship shes (or hes) not ready for.
All I'm saying is that I think marriage is just as serious as voting or signing up for the military, etc. and I don't believe you should make those decisions lightly. I hardly doubt CaterpillarGirl that you would think it would be acceptable for her to deliberately get pregnant that young. It happened, but I don't think thats just cause for them deliberately getting married (of course that can't happen by accident)
Even though I'm gay and liberal I have a lot of respect for the commitment you make to someone when you get married and ideally I believe it should be something you do once (I'm not suggesting you stay in an abusive or unhappy marriage) and for all the right reasons. Not something you do because you feel you are obligated to or something you have to do to be an upstanding member of society or better father. All I'm saying is that they can be great parents in the mean time and wait to see if their relationship is one the want for life.
22I suppose it's true, but how many couples did we all know that vowed to stay together after high school and had broken up by Thanksgiving? I suppose that happens more if they're going to college.
23haus that's a huge leap. Just because I think that marriage was not something Levi was planning for their immediate future does not mean I think Bristol should have an abortion. Dial it down a notch.
24No one knows what is going on privately here, and if they are taking anything lightly.
25We dont know what they were planning.
lets give them positive vibes and always support making the right choices.
True I know both types. I'm friends with a couple that started dating senior year. They broke up for a week in college and have not been apart since. But they did not marry until after college. All the other couples I knew were over by the end of that year or the next.
26well the statistics are in thier favor, I hope they do well.
27I also wish them luck, what a tough situation...it's nice that they're both taking responsibility for their actions. I don't necessarily think they need to be married since she's pregnant, but to each their own.
But. He got "Bristol" tattooed on his ring finger. That's the kiss of death! Ask my coworker that has two failed relationships tattooed on her body!
28I honestly hope that getting married is the "right" choice, but I highly doubt it.
29I wasnt directing that at you Blu, just at the general hate that is thrown at these two kids just trying to do the best they can.
30I think these two have made the right path for them, and I congratulate them for not taking the easy way out.
31"I suppose it's true, but how many couples did we all know that vowed to stay together after high school and had broken up by Thanksgiving? I suppose that happens more if they're going to college."
I have 7 couples (I had to think back and count) who dated in highschool, and now are married to each other. There was an 8th, but they divorced. I agree that getting married this young doesn't give them the best odds of staying together, but I do wish them all the best.
32I wish him the best but I agree he should have finished high school (as one poster says, I did not know he quit). And yeah the myspace page being done by friends as a joke was not true I am sure. But what else is he going to say?
She and he are two gorgeous people that is for sure.
33I wish them both the best, the baby will grow up in a loving family and Bristol already has the support of loved ones (and a lot of the country) behind her.
However there are many unwed teenage mothers out there who are not lucky enough to share Bristol's situation and (should Palin have her way) would find themselves in less fortunate circumstances (with no other option than to raise the baby themselves or give it up for adoption). People should not use Bristol as an exemplary young mother for the pro-life agenda...
34TS, there are some couples that date all through high school and manage to stay together without getting pregnant. Sometimes they both even go to college! I should know, I'm part of one.
This story seems like it belongs on PopSugar.
35Regardless of politics I find it sad that their choice, forced or not, has become a poster image for the Pro-Life camp.
They are young, and they are in for a rough life. Anyone who faces an unplanned pregnancy regardless of their chosen path is in for a rough life. I wish them luck with the action they have chosen, but dropping out of school on Levi's part will be an obstacle for them plain and simple. Get back in school Levi, give yourself and your future a chance man!
I hope that they can be removed from all this limelight and scrutiny because it will just make their overall situation that much more difficult.
36"So, you know, they're that couple. Either she was going to get pregnant and they'd have to get married or they'd break up shortly after high school graduation."
I know this has already been discussed on here, but I have to put my input in. lol
My SO and I starting dating when I was 15 (freshman) and he was 16 (sophomore). We have now been together for 6 years (this last month was our Anniversary - September 20). We are both going to graduate college next December and plan to get married in two years. He will go on to grad school and I will begin teaching. We will start a family after that.
We live together in an apartment and are monogamous, completely committed to our relationship, have extensive future plans, and we are not pregnant (we use precautionary measures).
TS, I really like you a lot and agree with most of your politics, but I just don't like generalizations about being "that" couple.
37why are they in for a rough life because of an unplanned pregnancy? I know plenty of people, who were teenagers, who got married early and are doing just fine! Dropping out of school, isnt always negative, he can get his GED and still have a good future. Or he could get nothing and still have a great future.....
I dont understand why people are assuming this is a death sentence?
38I think it is their life, he has nothing to do with the presidency, so honestly, its not important to me at all. He is a handsome boy though, I wonder what he is going to do for a living.
39Also, it is obvious what Sarah Palin's anti sex education laws will produce.
40LaurenG22,
This is what the article said:
41"Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician."
Haha, so it has nothing to do with the presidency, and is not important, but also is so very telling about "what Sarah Palin's anti sex education laws will produce". How nice to have it both ways.
42Lauren, I can still be anti premarital sex and still have a daughter who makes a bad decision. It doesnt, IMO, make Palin look bad.
43I don't think they are doomed to a life of misery, but I also don't think they're guaranteed a happily ever after. Every shotgun marriage I've known about has ended in divorce. There are plenty of high school sweetheart stories out there, so of course it is possible for HS relationship to last, but a baby complicates things. I don't understand why staying together & keeping the baby without getting married isn't an option. I don't see the need to rush into marriage.
44No matter what he plans on doing career wise, I think one of the best things he can do for his fiance and new baby is get a high school degree or GED. I think it was really irresponsible of him to drop out.
45I'm with hausfrau, there's nothing that Bristol could have done that would have made them happy.
They're just two kids who made a mistake. They're doing their best to cope with it in a way that sits well with both of them, who the hell are we to criticize them?
46I hardly think that the fact that a girl made a stupid mistake makes her mother's pro-abstinence policies look bad. That's like saying that having a child who gets a speeding ticket makes a traffic cop look bad.
47As someone says in Bend It Like Beckham, "Children are a map of their parents."
In all seriousness, however, what they do or don't do doesn't make any difference to me and wouldn't sway my vote one bit, but I do find it annoying that they're giving interviews, "going public" so to speak, and otherwise being made into a campaign issue simply by putting these private, irrelevant matters out into the public sphere. I know that's not the kids' fault really, but it bothers me.
48Okay, all, I get it. We can all point to exceptions, but in general, couples that meet in high school don't last, unless they're one of Dave's friends, unless they're Mich and her better half, or they're Corey and Topanga. (And thank goodness or I would likely be married to a marine and have two kids, a lovely life for those who choose it but the opposite of what I want.)
49TS - I agree that most HS couples don't last much beyond HS. I also believe that some people find their "true love" early, and that's good for them. You didn't, and neither did I, and that's OK too.
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