First there was the Palins’ teenage daughter’s prenancy, which was released to the public this morning, three days after the announcement of Gov. Palin as Sen. McCain’s runningmate.

Now, there is the release of Todd Palin’s (Gov. Palin’s husband) DWI arrest in 1984:

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) — A senior adviser to the McCain campaign confirmed Monday that Todd Palin, husband to Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, was arrested for driving while intoxicated in 1984.

“Yes, 24 years ago he had a DWI,” senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt told reporters in St. Paul.

Schmidt was asked if he was worried about the news, and replied, “I was not.”

Back in 2000, it was leaked days before the election that then-Gov. George Bush had a DUI arrest years before (which many believe made Bush’s win a lot smaller [hence the months-long recount drama] than it would have been).  In 2004, Sen. John Kerry never really responded to the “Swift Boat Veterans For Truth” claims of dishonorable service to the military and the country.

As I and other members of this blog have noted, I don’t think that the younger Palin’s pregnancy is a huge issue - a mistake was made (good heavans!  No way!), and more importantly, the parties involved have taken full responbility (i.e. if it were Barack Obama’s daughter, he wouldn’t want her to be “punished” with a child that she helped create).

By the same token, a DWI of a candidate’s husband back in 1984 doesn’t really bother me either.  Again, we all make mistakes.  [I previously stated something to the extent that, "A DWI is a lower charge than a DUI anyway."  It appears that in Alaska there is simply a DWI charge; link in the comments]

I’m sure the Left will be screaming “hypocrite!” for days and months now, which will be rich.  On one hand they claim to be tolerant, peaceful beings who are down with anything, while they frame Republicans as neanderthal troglodytes who are all Puritan by nature and lousy people to hang around with to boot.  This is just one more example that goes to show that right-wingers are not Puritans, merely encouraging of upstanding life choices, but more importantly are also gracious and foregiving and willing to take responsibilty for previous actions.

And on a final purely political note (hence the headline), this is the first ticket that is smartly putting any “skeletons” out there immediately, to let the media hash them out, so that the campaign can then move onto serious issues about this race and who is best to lead the country.  McCain and Palin have clearly learned from Gov. Bush in 2000 and Sen. Kerry in 2004.