By Andrew Collins

I was initially relieved to see that Dan's blog topic for the week steers us slightly away from the much-sensationalized discussions of Sarah Palin and either party's conventions. We're all concerned about Hurricane Gustav (I wrote a travel guidebook to New Orleans and southern Louisiana in 2004, and then spent many weeks there writing a post-Katrina updated edition - this is one of my favorite parts of the world). Right now would seem like a good time to get away from heated political debates and partisanship.

It didn't take me long to convince myself otherwise. Doesn't Hurricane Gustav have a legitimate place in the political debate? How about the personal lives of political candidates? If you've been watching the news over the last two days, then you've heard commentators tiptoe (and sometimes stumble) through a whole minefield of potentially thorny election issues. I think it's naïve to unequivocally declare any topic completely "off-limits." It's the very reluctance of human beings to candidly discuss sensitive issues (birth, death, sexuality, religion, race, poverty, and so on) that encourages the titillating, sophomoric manner in which the media often covers them.

I can't think of an effective one-size-fits-all litmus test for determining which issues should remain private, and which merit public discussion. And even if I could, once a story makes headlines, it's out there, forever immortalized in YouTube clips and Google caches. That doesn't mean we have to feast on every current event, personal revelation, and clumsy gaffe like ravenous lions chewing apart a skinny gazelle. But there's no stuffing a story back into the bottle, or pretending that we don't care deeply about certain taboo topics.

Is it fair game to politicize Hurricane Gustav? An all-or-nothing answer to this question doesn't work. On the one hand, it's a huge natural disaster that's palpably affecting tens of thousands of people - campaigners and pundits who manipulate this tragic event for political gain do so at their own peril. But we also care deeply about how our leaders handle natural disasters. A hurricane bearing down on Louisiana demonstrates how government prepares for and responds to crises. It also generates discussions about how to manage ecologically fragile wetlands and aging urban infrastructures. Gustav provides us with a chance to see how both candidates and their top advisors will potentially govern America. Politicians shouldn't trivialize Gustav, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't vigorously discuss and debate it in the context of their campaigns. I'd like to know how McCain or Obama will handle not only Gustav, but the hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildlife fires that will inevitably occur on their watch.

Of course, as Daniel pointed out, this year's election has begun to feel like a reality TV show, and all weekend the media has been feeding voraciously on Sarah Palin, chewing over both her personal and public personas. All sides seem to agree that it's fair to discuss whether or not Governor Palin acted inappropriately with regard to the alleged Troopergate .

But what about revelations concerning Palin's personal family life? Barack Obama on the left and William Bennett on the right have both insisted that talk of Palin's family has no place in the political arena. Plenty of bloggers and a few mainstream media pundits think otherwise and have treated both the rumors and the substantiated facts about Palin's personal life with salacious fervor.

I've found many of these efforts desperate and ugly. But I also think facts (and not rumors) concerning all of the candidates' personal lives, insofar as they relate to political views and capabilities, have a legitimate place in any election discussion. Was Barack Obama close friends with Tony Rezko, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, or Rev. Michael Pfleger? Is he still, and to what extent does he share their views? That seems like a reasonable thing for voters to scrutinize. Maybe we have no business prying into John Edwards' or David Vitter's marital (or extramarital) tribulations, but it's absolutely fair to consider the practical and public ramifications of these matters - that Edwards hiding an affair would have made him an unelectable as a presidential candidate, and that Vitter has preached family values while simultaneously having sex with prostitutes.

I find the obsessive degree and often flippant manner in which some commentators have covered Sarah Palin's personal life both self-righteous and counterproductive. When either side smugly assails candidates with gotchya finger-pointing and hissing invective, we lose a useful opportunity to talk honestly and rationally about more important issues.

I don't think the revelation about Sarah Palin's pregnant teenage daughter says anything about her ability to serve as Vice President, nor do I think it's a mark on her character. But I do think it's fair to discuss this issue, and the manner in which it's been disclosed, in the context of Palin's political views. If it's reasonable to talk about how her decision to give birth to a child with Down syndrome relates to her very public stance against abortion, as her supporters have been doing since she was named to the ticket, then I also think it's reasonable to talk about how the pregnancy of her teenage daughter relates to Palin's very public stance against teaching "explicit sex-ed" in public schools.

Also, the fact that a variety of both political and personal revelations about Palin are now making headlines calls into question how effectively John McCain vetted his running mate before inviting her to run with him. To me, these personal issues aren't nearly as germane as discussions about Palin's political record, but they're still relevant.

Attempting to quarantine certain events and issues, whether they be devastating hurricanes or sensational personal revelations, does nothing to further the cause of healthy, honest conversation. It feeds rather than diminishes the public's voracious appetite for rumor-mongering and gutter politics, and it reinforces the absurd Leave it to Beaver standards to which we hold our elected politicians. There's really nothing wrong with the Republicans and Democrats waging a vigorous, even partisan campaign while Hurricane Gustav barrels through Louisiana, and there's nothing scandalous or shocking about the fact that Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden, and Sarah Palin have complicated, imperfect personal lives. Forget the high road - let's just take the road we all honestly live on.

This week's previous posts (most recent first): What This Election is Really About