I miss Murphy Brown.
Not so much the sitcom of old, although I did watch it regularly and loved Candice Bergen's sass and style (great white shirts, cool accessories) as TV reporter Murphy Brown.
But what I really miss is a time when campaign discourse about unwed pregnancy centered on a grown-up, albeit fictional, woman rather than a 17-year-old, and very real, girl.
Back then - 1992, to be exact - it was slightly comical when Vice President Dan Quayle triggered a dispute by holding up Murphy Brown as a symbol of the breakdown in family values because the fictional character had a fictional baby out of fictional wedlock.
Today, though, we have vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whose real daughter, Bristol, is having a real baby out of real wedlock - at least for now, since I haven't as yet received my invitation to the upcoming nuptials - and the situation is being held up in some quarters as the epitome of those same family values.
Truth is truly stranger than fiction.
I'm confused. What wasn't OK for Murphy is OK for Bristol, apparently because she's going to marry her baby daddy?
It's a long way between 1992, when Murphy was held up as a bad role model, and today, when Palin's supporters are lauding Bristol's decision to keep her baby and marry, even as they're telling everyone else to butt out.
At least Murphy could take care of herself (and in fact, series creator Diane English would get her payback against Quayle in a subsequent episode). As the character was drawn, she had the means and, more important, the maturity to make a decision about bringing a baby into her world. Not to mention, with that house painter who never finished the job and basically moved in for the duration of the show, she already had child care available.
As for Bristol, back here in the current, reality-based world, we just don't know. Had she gotten any sex-ed or birth control advice, either in school or at home? Has she or will she finish high school? Does she have a job? Does her boyfriend? How will two kids raise a kid?
I know: None of my beeswax.
