Johnston spent extended periods of time at the Palin household in Wasilla, Alaska during his courtship of Bristol Palin. Throughout this time Sarah Palin served as Governor of Alaska and, if we are to believe Johnston, in the privacy of her own home comported herself rather selfishly and with little regard for the potential consequences of her words and actions (were they ever to be revealed). Among other revelations, Johnston has divulged that Governor Palin allowed her daughter to sleep in the same room as Johnston, insisted on concealing Bristol's pregnancy and adopting her child, openly fought with her husband Todd and spoke seriously about divorce in the presence of their children, rarely slept with her husband, expressed a desire to resign and undertake more lucrative pursuits, and referred to her youngest son Trig as her "retarded baby."
I would never have voted for Governor Palin even if Johnston had chosen to remain silent about what he witnessed, but his disclosures raise serious questions about the extent to which basic human trust and propriety should govern the manner in which two individuals speak of one another when all bonds of affection have dissolved, especially when serious breaches of faith might ruin a person's reputation or career. The Palin-Johnston feud also adds complexity to the ongoing debate about whether politicians should be held accountable for discrepancies, regardless of the manner in which such information is obtained, between their public positions and their private actions.
By her own admission, Governor Palin's time in office was particularly stressful. She clearly regarded her home as her sanctum and went about her non-working hours as if her domestic choices and conversations would have no long-term political implications. While my baser instincts imbue me with a sense of lurid fascination at Palin's apparent hypocrisy, none of us are entitled to sensitive information as to the state of the Palins' marriage beyond details of their own admission. Liberals might consider whether the President of the United States should any more have to adopt certain behavioral and emotional affectations in his own home to ensure that Sasha and Malia's friends don't overhear any accidental utterances than should Governor Palin in her own domicile.
While the pursuit of personal satisfaction likely motivated Johnston's candor tour, I would wager that a majority of Palin's political opponents disagree with my position and are instead delighted that apparent inconsistencies between Palin's outward convictions and private conduct have been exposed despite Johnston's questionable revelatory methods. While I don't doubt that some of Johnston's accusations, if true, may seriously undermine the moral force of some of Palin's past and future political assertions, I counsel those who would prefer knowledge of Palin's private mistakes to the subsistence of her domestic privacy to imagine what it must feel like to have intelligence of their most embarrassing household improprieties communicated publicly through a perfidious informant.
