Do you remember Billy Carter? How about Roger Clinton? A few won't but many people remember these colorful relatives of former Presidents. They became mini-celebrities; sort of backwater characters that proved to be a distraction for the Presidents at the time. It's tough to try an negotiate peace accords or be taken seriously on the economy when a brother is getting arrested for drug possession or someone is trying to sell his own line of beer.

Like it or not, relatives close and far have the potential of causing distractions for a President.

I bring this up because today, Bristol Palin's ex-boyfriend, the father of her child, will be on Tyra Bank's show dishing dirt about the family. This morning Sarah Palin issued a statement mentioning the regret she had that he was, in essence, talking trash. On one hand, you can see this is a mother wanting to protect her child and family. She wants to keep family business quiet, especially when the ex talk about if he and Bristol practiced safe sex or if Sarah Palin was aware of them having sex.

The troubling issue is that Sarah Palin is the governor of a state, was a Vice-Presidential candidate and has the possibility of being a presidential candidate. Why would she, quoting one pundit, want to stoop into the Jerry Springer mud on this?

There is always a trouble for first people. What I mean is, if you are the first at something, your every action will be scrutinized unjustly. You will have people in orifices you didn't know you had and everyone will be an expert on how you do things. Now, while Sarah Palin wasn't the first woman to get picked to run for national office, she was hailed as a pioneer. She was hailed as an example.

Wow, what an example she made!

Less than three days in the spotlight, what seemed semi-minor at the time has turned into a colossal failure and has not only tarnished her reputation but has marred things for other female politicians of a certain age. Three days after coming on the scene, her campaign staff had to admit Bristol was pregnant. OK, semi-minor issue and let's all have a discussion about teenage pregnancy. The thing is, it didn't stop there. The boyfriend Levi was brought out and it was declared that even though it was a mistake, these two young people in love would do the right things and get married.

Call me a cynic, but considering the thousands of teenage girls every year who get pregnant, look at the few of those where the guy, if he steps up at all, offers to marry the girl, then look at how many of those last a year, I would have to say the chances of Bristol and Levi lasting the year would be a miracle. The only saving grace, if you could call it that, the two had was the glare of the public and Sarah Palin as a vice-presidential candidate.

Yeah, not really good odds of the kids lasting a year of marriage.

Less than a six months after the campaign, she had the baby, he lost his job, neither has finished school, they broke up and now he's airing the dirty laundry to anyone who will listen. It would be a great juicy plotline for some nighttime teen angst soap like Gossip Girl or 90210, but I don't want to see this playing out with the presidency. It freaks me out to think what would have happened if McCain had won? All the economic crisis we have, two wars and other ills and the country, or at least the press, would be focused on this stupid drama.