(In case you’re wondering: No, we haven’t seen any recent coverage of Joe Biden that mentions disability issues. If you have, please let us know.)

In a wrapup of Sarah Palin’s record as governor, the New York Times says Palin nearly tripled the per-student allocation for students with intensive special needs. Carol Comeau, superintendent of the Anchorage School District, says the category includes students with Down syndrome. (Palin’s son has Down syndrome.) Comeau and other education experts gave much of the credit for the funding increase to a legislative task force, but also praised Palin for approving the bill.

Recapping Palin’s interview this week with conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt, the National Review’s Jim Geraghty quotes Palin saying that the only time campaign criticism has gotten “hurtful” was the commentary about her son Trig, and (Geraghty’s words) “the insinuation that carrying him to term was a mistake.”

The actual exchange was quite a bit more convoluted than that, and touches on Palin’s pro-life/anti-abortion position and Palin’s characterization of Obama’s position on abortion. Here’s the whole transcript, courtesy of Hugh Hewitt’s website:

Hugh Hewitt: Governor, let’s turn to a couple of issues that the mainstream media’s not going to pick up. You’re pro-life, and how much of the virulent opposition to you on the left do you attribute to your pro-life position, and maybe even to the birth of, your decision, your and Todd’s decision to have Trig?

Sarah Palin: Yeah, you know, I think that that’s been probably the most hurtful and nonsensical slap that we’ve been taking is our position that we have taken, pro-life, me personally, and saying that you know, even though I knew that 13 weeks along that Trig would be born with Down Syndrome, and I said you know, he’s still going to be a most precious ingredient in this sometimes messed-up world that we live in. I know that my son is going to provide a lot of hope and a lot of promise in this world, and I’m so thankful of course that I’ve had the opportunity to give him life and to bring him into this world. But I think yeah truly, that that’s been a hurtful slap that we have taken, because people just don’t understand. Ironic too, Hugh, that some would consider my position on life and trying to usher in a culture of life, respecting the sanctity of life in America, that that is seen as an extreme position when to me, an extreme position is one that Barack Obama took when he was in the Illinois State Senate, not even supporting a measure that would ban partial birth abortion, not even supporting a measure that would during, after a botched abortion and that baby’s born alive, allowing medical care to cease and allowing that baby to die. That to me is extreme. That’s so far, far left it’s certainly out of the mainstream of America. To me, that is the extreme position, not my position of just wanting that culture of life to be respected, and not wanting government to sanction the idea of ending life.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 10:58 am and is filed under abortion, Campaign 2008, Down syndrome. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.