This is the most bizarre article I’ve read in quite some time. Levi Johnston finally breaks his silence and discusses his upcoming marriage to Bristol Palin, his soon-to-be fatherhood, his future mother-in-law and Barack Obama.
Author Adam Goldman wrote this for the Associate Press, but it reminded me of a fluff magazine article that a public relations person organized for a celebrity who need to improve his image. This article has a happy feel-good angle to it, which just doesn’t sit right.
Levi Johnston, who’s having a baby with Gov. Sarah Palin’s daughter, can’t believe all the things he’s hearing.
No, he wasn’t held against his will on the campaign trail. No, he’s not being forced into a shotgun wedding with 17-year-old Bristol Palin.
“None of that’s true,” Johnston, 18, said in a rare interview with The Associated Press. “We both love each other. We both want to marry each other. And that’s what we are going to do.”
Standing in the driveway of his family home in this small Alaska town, Johnston spoke about the rumors swirling around him.
The soft-spoken teenager discussed his relationship with Palin and how life has changed with fatherhood fast approaching. He agreed to talk despite the presidential campaign’s advice in the days following Gov. Sarah Palin’s nomination to avoid the media.
“They’re not telling me anything right now,” Johnston said as he checked his Blackberry. “It’s pretty chill.”
Truth be told, there are far worse things that could happen to an 18-year old high school dropout. Seriously. He’ll be marrying into a family that does have money, even though we are being led to believe that the Palin’s are in the same financial stratosphere as most small town Americans. They also have power. Regardless of what happens in this election, Palin is still the governor of Alaska and in case of defeat, a strong contender for the GOP nomination in 2012.
Not surprisingly, Johnston was a little shocked when he learned about Bristol’s pregnancy, but he says he quickly embraced the prospects of fatherhood. The baby is due Dec. 18. Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician.
Johnston hinted he’s expecting a boy, but he declined to discuss baby names.
“I’m looking forward to having him,” he said. “I’m going to take him hunting and fishing. He’ll be everywhere with me.”
Johnston was ‘a little shocked.’ Only a little shocked?
When you ask a man about his future son, they always say ‘I’m going to play ball with him.’ That is actually something I find interesting about Alaskans. Johnston will take his son hunting and fishing.
Johnston, a Wasilla heartthrob, said he wanted to set the record straight.
For starters, he said his much-maligned MySpace page was a joke — the one that claimed he said: “I’m a … redneck,” and “I don’t want kids.” Johnston said his friends created the page a few years ago and he had nothing to do with it.
Goldman referred to Johnston as ‘a Wasilla heartthrob.’ This supports my theory that this is a PR piece in order to try to make this marriage more of a warm, touching, all-American story. ‘The teen heartthrob and the governor’s daughter.’ Awwww.
With regards to the MySpace page: I saw it when the rumors of the boyfriend began. I wish I would have copied it because they were stunning. Having 2 high school children, I had spent my time reviewing MySpace pages of my kids, their friends, and their friends’ friends. With child predators out there, I wanted to make sure that my kids weren’t going to fall prey to the worst in society.
But that is off-the-point. I have read some kids’ pages that sounded like that. It was beat-the-chest tough guy talk. Like, I mentioned, I saw his page and I have to say that it really did come off as thug-like but I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he was messing around with the page creating that tough persona.
Johnston said he has dated Palin since his freshman year in high school.
“We were planning on getting married a long time ago with or without the kid,” he said. “That was the plan from the start.”
While Johnston provided few details about next summer’s wedding, the planning has started: A cousin will likely be his best man, and he has asked two hockey buddies, Ben Barber and Dane Wilson, to be groomsmen.
Barber doesn’t think anyone pressured Johnston into marriage.
“If he thought it wasn’t the right thing to do he probably wouldn’t do it,” he said.
I have to say, that I am surprised this section even made it past an editor. In fact, like I’ve said, this shouldn’t even be an AP story but a People magazine piece.
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.
He’s bagged bears, sheep, elk, and caribou. Some of the antlers are scattered about his yard. Last July on a caribou hunt he lost a “promise” ring that Palin had given him. He said he decided to tattoo her name on the finger and not bother with more rings because he’d just lose them anyway.
How endearing. Without question, these are my favorite 2 paragraphs in this story. It’s almost as if Goldman has a crush on Johnston. “He’s dark haired, tall and muscular, sports a bit of stubble and drives a red Chevy Silverado truck.”
I’ve seen the video of McCain meeting Johnston. This description comes off as pure fantasy.
“He’s bagged bear, sheep, elk and caribou.” I love Goldman’s use of ‘bagged.’
The antlers scattered about his yard is reminiscent of when I’ve white water rafted in North Carolina and Tennessee and saw appliances in the yard.
Goldman’s addition of the tattoo of love touched me and brought a tear to my eye.
Johnston said he wasn’t forced to campaign with Palin’s mother. Bristol Palin invited him and Johnston jumped at the chance. It was a whirlwind experience for Johnston, who was seated with the Palins at the Republican National Convention.
“At first, I was nervous,” he said. “Then I was like, ‘Whatever.’”
While Barber said his friend is a celebrity now, Johnston said it hasn’t changed him.
“I’m still the same old boy,” said Johnston. “I’m just a workin’ man.”
Johnston is just a “workin’ man.” Actually he was a student. Now he is a high school dropout forced out of school because he got his teenage girlfriend pregnant. This story would have such a different spin if it was a Democratic VP candidate.
I’m not posting this to judge Johnston, which is why I refrained from posting about his MySpace page earlier. I read this article and was taken by the spin Goldman put on this. It is disgraceful that the AP released this rather than sell it to US magazine.
And now he’s also about to become a family man.
“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.”
Wasilla hockey coach Bill Sturdevant, who was invited to the wedding, said he was sorry to hear Johnston wasn’t going to return for his senior year of high school. But he said he believes Johnston, a talented hockey player, will find his way.
“He’s a tough kid,” Sturdevant said. “He’s taking everything in stride.”
How early did they send out invitations? The article stated that the wedding will be next summer, though I had read earlier that it was going to occur just before the election.
Notice how coach Sturdevant suggests that Johnston will ‘find his way.’ That implies that Johnston is not anywhere near what is claimed in this article.
“He’s taking everything in stride.” Is the coach referring to the wedding, the baby, the race to the White House, the new-found fame or fact that he had to drop-out of school to take a job? I wonder what Johnston’s parents are saying about all of this. He’s 18. If my 18-year old son was in this situation, you better be sure that I’ll have something to say about it as would his mother.
What about Johnston’s politics?
The young man said he wasn’t an expert on politics by any stretch. Asked about Barack Obama, he replied: “I don’t know anything about him. He seems like a good guy. I like him.”
“He wasn’t an expert on politics by any stretch.” Just like his future mother-in-law? (Okay, I know that was a cheap shot.)
He doesn’t know anything about Obama. Nice job with that talking point. He likes him? His future mother-in-law implies that she is scared of him. Oh, oh. Wonder what the campaign will say about this?
But Johnston still rooting for John McCain and Sarah Palin.
“I just hope she wins,” he said. “She’s my future mother-in-law. She better win.”
Isn’t that sweet?
To read Johnston speaks on Bristol Palin, Obama and baby
