I confess that as the father of three daughters and the uncle of a child with profound disabilities, I was going to respond with more anger and indignation than perhaps most people would to the cheap shot, all-out assault on the family of pro-life Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. But I don't think you have to have any more qualifications than to be a human being to be enraged at the guttersnipe attacks on pro-life Sen. John McCain's choice as his vice president, Gov. Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, and even Sarah Palin's four-month-old son, Trig!

On the off-off chance that you may have missed it, Gov. Palin's daughter Bristol is five months pregnant. According to a statement issued by the Palin family, Bristol intends to marry the baby's father.

The statement they issued captured both the challenges any young couple will face in such a situation and the promise of help from Palin and her husband, Todd.

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned," they wrote. "We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents."

Is there any adult in the United States who is more than two degrees of separation removed from an unmarried pregnant teenage girl? It is a fact of life. What separates us is the quality of our response to a situation that puts any parent to the test.

The Palins responded exactly as you would have expected, given their values. We remember that Gov. Palin had discovered that Trig, her last baby, would have Down syndrome. In our darkened world, such a prenatal diagnosis is a death sentence for 90% of these children.

But the Palin family rallied together and the beauty of Mrs. Palin's life-affirming response is a beacon of light.

"Trig is beautiful and already adored by us," they said. "We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed."

Of course she and her husband would be there for Bristol. Did you even need to ask?

The beauty of their loyalty and steadfastness stands in sharp contrast to the ugliness and contempt of much of the mainstream press and all of the wacko, take-no-prisoners ultra-left blogosphere.

Their objective is simple: turn loveliness on its head.

It would take me several thousands words to begin to convey all the ways they attempted to undermine the Palins as parents and, in the case of Gov. Palin, as a potential vice president. Suffice it to say it was not journalism's finest hour.

Intertwined with the effort to use Bristol's pregnancy as a weapon against her mother was the "rumor" that Gov. Palin's fifth child, Trig, had really been Bristol's baby. In the alternative universe where these lowlifes live, the charge was dredged up that Gov. Palin "covered up" Bristol's pregnancy by pretending that Trig was her child, not her grandchild.

There was, of course, no evidence for this false and scurrilous attack, The accusation was bizarre beyond words, but that made no difference.

As I wrote last week, the selection of Gov. Palin shakes up this election in a fundamental way. This poses a serious threat to a line established well over a year ago: pro-abortion Barack Obama must be President and nothing--and no one and no mere scruple--will be allowed to stop his inevitable ascension.

So while all knew that the choice of Palin would unleash the attack dogs, even I thought it would take a little while. Wrong.

The Palins bear the brunt of this viciousness, so it is almost embarrassing to bring up the fact that pro-lifers and/or people of faith also came under siege. I mention it because we need to know it's out there, to remind ourselves that the pro-abortionists who dominate most of the media haven't a clue who we are, and to keep uppermost in our mind there is no limit to the depths to which the "mainstream media" will sink to elect Obama.

For reasons only the Washington Post understands, uber-Inside Washington celebrity Sally Quinn blogs for the paper's "On Faith." Under the headline, "Palin's Pregnancy Problem," she tells her readers, "[W]ith news that Palin's 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant, McCain's pick may not even find support among 'family values' voters."

Drawing on her deep, first-hand knowledge of "the Republican conservative family-value crowd," she tells us this may be a "hard one" for them "to swallow." Quinn adds, with utter insincerity, "Of course, this can happen in any family," only to remind us in her patented smarmy tone, "But it must certainly raise the question among the evangelical base about whether Sarah Palin has been enough of a hands-on mother."

To be fair, it is asking the impossible to expect someone whose whole world view is threatened by the emergence of an energetic, intelligent, accomplished, family-oriented, pro-life woman to be even marginally fair, let alone insightful. To people like Quinn, most of the cable network correspondents, and plenty of newspaper reporters, the only possible picture they can have of people like you and me is vengeful hypocrites: we preach respect for life but would turn away our own daughter or nieces or next door neighbors in a heartbeat if they told us they were pregnant.

But ask yourself this: what would be harder to swallow, for you and me and most of Middle America? The Palins' true grit, or the contempt that the Sally Quinns of this world have for everyone who doesn't share their sheltered life and their tunnel vision?

I don't expect the loony Left to let up, let alone apologize to Palin family. But I would hope [admittedly against hope] that the Media Establishment would occasionally listen to the better angels of their nature and give fairness a chance.

Part Two -- John McCain: A Champion for Our Issue