US presidential election

Obama says "back off" from Palin's daughter

Article published on the 2008-09-02 Latest update 2008-09-02 13:51 TU

John McCain and Sarah Palin.
(Photo : Reuters)

The US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has told reporters to "back off" from Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family after the disclosure that Palin's unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. Social conservative Palin said in a statement her daughter Bristol would keep the child and marry the father. 

"I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off limits," Obama declared.

"People's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Governor Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice-president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories."

Republican presidential candidate John McCain named the Alaska governor, a mother of five, as his running mate three days ago.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Palin had hired a lawyer to defend herself in a probe into allegations of abuse of powers as Alaska Governor and reports were also emerging that Palin had once been a member of the fringe Alaska Independence Party.

Palin underwent a "full and complete" background examination before McCain chose her, the man delegated to find a running mate, Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., told the Associated Press in an interview Monday.

Asked whether everything that came up as a possible red flag during the review has already been made public, he said, "I think so. Yah, I think so. Correct."

McCain's campaign has been questioning whether the Arizona senator adequately researched Palin or whether he chose the first-term governor without fully looking into her background.