McCain embraces Palin's daughter

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By Joseph Curl and Gary Emerling

The scene was carefully choreographed, but still decidely moving -- 72-year-old Sen. John McCain, meeting the pregnant 17-year-old daughter of his running mate and, for the first time, her fiance at the airport, put a hand on each of their arms and pulled the couple close.

He spoke softly. Bristol Palin, showing her pregnancy as the breeze whipped open her short brown jacket, leaned in to hear what Mr. McCain, a grandfather, had to say. He already had given her a long, tight hug, and when he stepped down to meet Levi Johnston, 18, he patted his shoulder as the two shook hands. The boy looked remarkably young, smiling uncomfortably, his cheeks pink from the breeze, or a blush.

Mr. McCain stood for nearly a minute with a hand on each of their arms, almost like a preacher presiding over a marriage.

"The kid is probably scared to death after the media coverage," said Texas convention delegate Greg Simmons. "What it tells me is that the senator is a compassionate man."

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Gary Herbert, Utah's lieutenant governor and a delegate, said: "It shows what a gracious man he is and that he'll stand by the Palin family in this time of great scrutiny."

While most of the attention at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday focused on the speech of vice-presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin, the two teenagers once unknown to the world stepped onto the national stage as well. While teen pregnancies are usually accompanied by embarrassment as family, friends and neighbors find out, millions worldwide know about this one.

Although the revelation that the young couple conceived a child out of wedlock has knocked the Republican ticket's campaign off-stride, the Mrs. Palin, a mother of five children, and Mr. McCain, a father of seven, decided not to shy away from the swirling controversy, and instead openly embraced the soon-to-be teen parents.

Social conservatives - who greeted the Palin pick enthusiastically - did not abandon the embattled mother, but instead closed ranks, just as the McCain and Palin families did. All 12 children were at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to welcome the candidate, who on Thursday will become the Republican presidential nominee.