Opinion: Bristol Palin’s baby makes Sarah Palin a grandma. And he’s a Republican

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Sarah Palin’s oldest daughter, Bristol, has had a baby boy -- 7 pounds 7 ounces.

His name weighs in at only 4 pounds -- Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston.

‘The baby is fine. Bristol is doing well. And everyone is excited,’ a relative told People magazine, which said the birth occurred Saturday.

Bristol, who is 18, and her longtime boyfriend, Levi Johnston, plan to marry in 2009, the family has said. He is an apprentice electrician and she is finishing high school.

The pregnancy of the Palins’ daughter as her mother was about to accept the GOP vice presidential nomination shocked a lot of people during the Republican National Convention. (See news video below.)

But instead of moral rejection, the conservative crowd seemed to see the situation as a familiar family one and embraced the mother of five enthusiastically, especially after her electrifying acceptance speech.

Word came this weekend that a new USA Today-Gallup Poll found that the 44-year-old Palin, a mother of five, is the nation’s second-most-admired woman, behind only Hillary Clinton and ahead of someone named Oprah Winfrey.

In Alaska, a Palin spokesman said the grandma governor was focused on state business and would have no public comment on her offspring’s offspring.

Oh, photo rights have been won at auction by People, with experts estimating the price at $300,000, up sharply since Levi’s mom was arrested on a recent drug charge.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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