When and where was Trig Palin born?

Not so long ago, in an attempt to check out the story that Trig Palin may not actually be the child of Sarah Palin, I researched the records at the Mat-su Medical Center in Wasilla, Alaska.

Palin claims that Trig was born on April 18, 2008 at 6:30 a.m.

The hospital's website lists two other children born on that date, but not Trig Palin. At that point I researched all the births on that date in Anchorage hospitals. I was unable to locate any record of Trig's birth in Wasilla or in Anchorage.

Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish has also attempted to locate a record of Trig's birth without success. He contacted the hospital and was told that births are included on the hospital's list by "parental choice" and all parents are asked if they want their child's name to appear.

Sullivan writes, "When asked if it was therefore a fair inference to say that they asked the Palins and the Palins chose not to have their child included on the list, the hospital told us that the Palins' privacy barred them from answering those questions."

Sullivan also contacted the McCain campaign for a comment, but they did not respond to his emails.

Why is this so hard? Why are the birth records of Trig Palin not readily available? It's not like this is a matter of national security! One cannot help but wonder if the birth records are non-existent because the Palins are hiding something.

Sullivan goes on to say: "As far as the propriety of demanding such basic publilc records, I am merely following Sarah Palin's own standards. In her first race for mayor of Wasilla, she demanded the marriage license of her opponent be made public. Why? Because his wife kept her maiden name -- and Palin deemed that sufficiently unusual to demand total transparency. If that level of transparency is necessary for the race for Wasilla mayor, why is it 'unspeakable' for the vice-presidency of the United States? Is being mayor of Wasilla more significant than possibly being US president?"

Sullivan notes that if anyone can find any birth record for Trig Palin, he will publish it.


Enough already. Sarah Palin should immediately release those records to the public and put this uncertainty behind her. It's like, you know, I mean, she should be like transparent to the people. Right?

[Another interesting tidbit is that the doctor who allegedly delivered Trig is, after a number of years, no longer affiliated with the Mat-su Medical Center.]