McCain's chief policy director, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, told a Christian Science Monitor luncheon that he had "never seen anything like the excitement" that Palin had brought to the ticket. But he responded sharply when a reporter asked if the campaign was in panic over Bristol Palin's "love child."
Have "a little respect," pleaded Holtz-Eakin, an economist. "This is a young woman. She's 17 years old."
One member of McCain's inner circle of advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said McCain decided to go ahead with his choice of Palin, even though he knew it might be a distraction for the campaign if her daughter's pregnancy became public.
"There wasn't any one of them [potential vice presidential candidates] that wouldn't have caused some kind of distraction," the adviser said.
Palin has given the Republican ticket an enormous lift among the religious and social conservatives who have long been unenthusiastic about McCain.
During her 2006 run for governor, she said in an Eagle Forum questionnaire that she favored abstinence education and opposed "explicit sex-ed programs." Palin is scheduled to be honored at an Eagle Forum gala tonight in the Twin Cities.
Palin is also an ardent foe of abortion and opposes same-sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research.
Morton Blackwell, a veteran conservative activist from Virginia, said the latest disclosure hadn't diminished that enthusiasm.
"There is no reason to be concerned," he said. "I think it is probably a good thing for society that we don't publish the dates of marriage compared to the birth of the first child."
"We're all sinners," Matthew Staver, dean of Liberty University law school, founded by the late Jerry Falwell, told the Associated Press. "We all make mistakes. Certainly, the ideal is not to get pregnant out of wedlock. But she made the right decision after her mistake."
Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, the state's most prominent Republican at the convention, played down the significance of the disclosure.
"It's a typical family. These things happen in families, and the family will deal with it," he said. Asked if he'd had similar experiences within his own family, Steele said, "I'm sure I have, but it's none of your business" and walked away.
Andrew Kohut, an independent pollster with the Pew Research Center, said the swirl of questions around Palin's family "will attract incredible attention until it's resolved and will dog her until there are some answers that satisfy the people who are going to be raising questions."
