Levi Johnson's Interview

This is an excerpt from the blog of Sansego that I have borrowed to share the interview with others. And to think this woman might have been our vice-president!

Levi Johnson father of Bristol Palin's baby gave an interview in Vanity Fair magazine this month. If Levi is being truthful, she is nothing like we were led to believe.

This is just a short excerpt from the article:

"There wasn't much parenting in that house. Sarah doesn't cook, Todd doesn't cook--the kids would do it all themselves: cook, clean, do the laundry, and get ready for school. Most of the time Bristol, now 18, would help her youngest sister, Piper, 8, with her homework, and I'd barbecue chicken or steak on the grill. I only saw Sarah help Piper--the youngest before Trig--with homework a few times, and I've only seen her read a book to her once. I actually never saw Sarah reading much at all--once in a blue moon, I'd see her reading a book, and I've never seen her read a newspaper."

"The Palins didn't have dinner together and they didn't talk much as a family. Throughout the years I spent with them, when Sarah got home from her office--almost never later than five and sometimes as early as noon--she usually walked in the door, said hello, and then disappeared into her bedroom, where she would hang out. Sometimes she'd take an hour-long bath. Other times she sat on the living-room couch in her two-piece pajama set from Walmart--she had all the colors--with her hair down, watching house shows and wedding shows on TV. She always wanted things and she wanted other people to get them for her."

"Sarah was always in a bad mood and she was stressed out a lot. Sometimes she would wonder why she took the job as governor. It was too hard, she said; there was so much going on. Todd was always out in the garage working on his snow machines and drinking beer or screwing off...He's not supposed to have beer, because Sarah doesn't like him drinking. (She only goes to church four or five times a year--mostly on holidays--but Sarah doesn't drink or cuss much)."

"After the nomination, Sarah and Todd wouldn't go anywhere together unless the cameras were out. They're good on television but once the cameras would leave, they didn't talk to each other. In all the time Bristol and I were together, I've never seen them sleep in the same bedroom. (I don't know how she got pregnant). Even during the Republican National Convention they slept in different bedrooms at opposite sides of her suite. Todd slept in the living room, on his little black recliner, with the TV going in the background--usually with the news or an Ultimate Fighting Championship match on--wearing clothes he wore that same day. (Since I used to sleep on the couch until Bristol got pregnant, I know he doesn't snore, so that's not why he wasn't in bed)."

Levi wrote about how Sarah and Todd Palin fought all the time and threatened one another with divorce. He also states that Sarah "wore the pants in the family" and that the Palins never took vacations or weekend trips as a family. They live separate lives, with Todd retreating to a two-bedroom cabin that was a two hour drive away from the home on Lake Lucille in Wasilla, Alaska. Levi also claimed that the eldest son, Track (20 years old) didn't want anything to do with the family dysfunction and perhaps was the reason why he joined the Army, just to get far away from there. As for the affairs, Levi believes it was far more likely that Sarah cheated on Todd than vice versa.

As for Palin's image as a hockey mom and hunter, Levi said that Sarah rarely attended her son's hockey games and she once asked Levi to show her how to shoot a gun she kept in a box under the bed. Levi wrote, "She pays no attention to her kids when the cameras aren't around." So much for family values! Gotta love the phoniness of the rightwing and how the focus on images don't reflect reality.

In preparation for the Republican National Convention, just after she was selected as McCain's running mate, things really got crazy for the family. "Sarah told us to just wait and see the free clothes we were going to get, and the food whenever we wanted it. We didn't even have to do our own hair, she said. She just couldn't believe the free clothes, the free room service, the private jets, and being escorted by cops. We had every room on our floor of the hotel, with one room for hair and makeup, one for fitting, and another for wardrobe. They did all the shopping for us, and all our clothes were already there. I was given two Burberry suits and one Armani suit, Prada shoes, and a cashmere sweater. Back home I'd wear Carhartts and flannels and cowboy boots. Putting those clothes on, I felt totally out of my world. When I went to get sized up for the suits, I remember thinking, How could this get any worse? But they were nice suits and I took them home with me. The campaign asked me to give them back a few weeks after they lost, and I did. Sarah and the girls were ***** off about this and they had to give most of their clothes back, but I still saw some of it around the house after the campaign."

"In Minnesota, the girls were stoked. They were getting Gucci shoes and loving it. Sarah would have a new getup every day, sometimes twice a day, all steamed and pressed. Sarah was all smiles and giggles. She loved the lifestyle and the fact that she impressed everybody. 'Isn't this nice, all this?' she would say, pointing around her suite, with its conference table, flat-screen TV, wrap couch, trays of fruits--there aren't that many different kinds of fruit in Alaska--sandwiches, and huge wardrobe. Sarah got a lot of clothes. She'd never worn anything so expensive."

"The big change that I saw in Sarah Palin occurred when she went from being the governor of Alaska to being a candiate for vice president. Her family and I had come back to Alaska right after the convention while Sarah went off to campaign. She came back to Alaska about one month after the convention, and you could tell that she'd gotten used to people steaming her clothes, doing her hair and makeup, and ordering her food for her. Everybody knew it. "

"She was always putting on an act in front of the camera. We all knew that she didn't know what to say on TV, and that when she was reading a script she was a phony. I'd be sitting with the family in front of the TV and we'd be disgusted watching her. Her family never said anything terrible, but they shook their heads with disappointment. And there were times where we'd sit there and pretty much laugh at the things she said. I laughed every time I saw Tina Fey imitate her. She sounded just like her. I think the kids thought it was funny, too. There were also times when Sarah would be at home and watch herself on the screen and say she did very bad."

After the election defeat, Levi observed that "Sarah was sad for awhile. She walked around the house pouting. I had assumed she was going to go back to her job as governor, but a week or two after she got back she started talking about how nice it would be to quit and write a book or do a show and make 'triple the money.' It was, to her, 'not as hard.' She would blatantly say, 'I want to just take this money and quit being governor.' She started to say it frequently, but she didn't know how to do it. When she came home from work, it seemed like she was more and more stressed out. It seemed like she couldn't handle the job anymore. I think that she was just through with it all or that she'd become used to getting everything she wanted handed to her. She'd rather take the money and keep that kind of lifestyle."

The best gem in the article is the following claim Levi makes, which is astonishing if true (the sentence in bold is my emphasis): "After Tripp was born, Sarah would pay more attention to our son than she would to her own baby, Trig. Sarah has a weird sense of humor. When she came home from work, Bristol and I would be holding Trig and Tripp. Sarah would call Trig--who was born with Down syndrome--'my little Down's baby.' But I couldn't believe it when she would come over to us and sometimes say, playing around, 'No, I don't want the retarded baby--I want the other one,' and pick up Tripp. That was just her--even her kids were used to it."

"Sarah didn't pay a whole lot of attention to Trig. The special-needs baby got special love from Bristol, the rest of the kids, me, and Todd, who was always playing with Trig when he could. ...When she came home from work, she'd tell Bristol she was too tired to take care of him. She'd walk in the door, give him a kiss, and act happy for 1o seconds before hibernating in her room until the next day started. Bristol and I would have Trig until 11 P.M., when we'd put him in his crib. Sarah went to bed between 9 and 10 P.M."