The announcement that Bristol Palin, the unmarried daughter of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Plain, is pregnant, injects a welcome dose of reality into the so-far unreal discussion of Republican “family values” in the 2008 presidential campaign.

The challenges facing the Palin family are a matter of public record. Bristol Palin has gotten two traffic tickets in the past 15 months, according to Alaska court records. She was stopped for speeding in June 2007 and ticketed for failure to exercise  “due caution” in February 2008. So the girl is careless behind the wheel. She has engaged in premarital sex and gotten pregnant. Those aren’t mortal sins, nor are they necessarily an indictment of Palin’s parenting. They are fairly normal for American families with teenagers and almost any parent of adolescents will sympathize.  One can only hope she outgrows her mistakes. Nonetheless, the facts of Palin’s family life raise questions about two key points of the conservative domestic policy agenda.