Slate’s homepage is flagging a story on “Why Are Conservatives Now So Keen on Out-of-Wedlock Births?” under a picture of Sarah Palin. Hanna Rosin, who has spent many years writing about religious conservatives for major-media outlets, is the author.

Just 15 years ago, a different Republican vice president was ripping into the creators of Murphy Brown for flaunting a working woman who chose to become a single mother. This time around, there’s no stigma, no shame, no sin attached to what Dan Quayle would once have mockingly called Bristol Palin’s “lifestyle” choices. In fact, so cavalier are conservatives about Sarah Palin’s wreck of a home life that they make the rest of us look stuffy and slow-witted by comparison. “I think a hard-working, well-organized C.E.O. type can handle it very well,” said Phyllis Schlafly, of the Eagle Forum.

I think Rosin scants the possibility that conservatives have responded differently to Murphy Brown and to Bristol Palin because the situations are different. Miss Palin is engaged. Also, I think it’s quite a stretch to refer to “Sarah Palin’s wreck of a home life.”