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Opinion: Bristol and Levi back together, but why?

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Here comes the bride, again.

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston have announced to Us Weekly their plans to make their way down the wedding aisle. That is, they announced them for a second time. You might recall that their first attempt fell apart after the 2008 election: Johnston backed out at the last moment, turmoil ensued, and the denouement was a nice tell-all article and photo spread of Johnston in Playgirl. Strange how those things work.

The obvious irony here is that, having made ‘family values’ such an important part of her politics, Mom Sarah Palin (like husband Todd) was the last to know about Bristol and Levi’s renewed nuptial plans.

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According to Gail Collins in her New York Times column, Bristol claims she went to Us Weekly to unveil her arrangements because she was too afraid to confront her mother directly. Really, Bristol? Is that really the reason?

Are you sure it wasn’t just the common teenage desire to lash out at one’s parents, particularly one’s mother? At 19, Bristol is, after all, still a teenager.

Or is the widely publicized news of Palin’s second entanglement, err, engagement an effort to generate a media frenzy right before the young couple announces a new reality series? Talk of a potential Palin reality show has been buzzing around on gossip blogs for a while, and no Palin family member or representative has refuted the rumors. In a New York Times article, when Johnston’s lawyer was asked about the supposed series, he responded with, ‘I can’t talk about that until the end of the week.’ That’s not the kind of answer that quashes speculation, is it?

Ultimately, though, it appears that Bristol’s new family does have values; it’s just that those values don’t necessarily include her old family.

-- Emilia Barrosse

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