"Dancing with the Stars" Season 11: Did You Vote for Bristol Palin?

This will be a brief editorial and survey type article at the same time.

I will be honest and say that I started watching "Dancing with the Stars" this season just to see how bad Bristol Palin would do as a dancer. I really do not like her mother, Sarah Palin, as a politician and she has used some less than stellar tactics to remain in the public eye, no doubt to make a run for the presidency in 2012 or future elections.

I do not think Bristol is a good role model simply because she got pregnant at an early age and it does not say much for her mother's upbringing of her and her siblings. I really do not believe she belongs in the public eye simply because she didn't know how to use contraception. Thousands of teenagers get pregnant each year and I don't see them labeled teen activists. Why Bristol? I believe it is simply because of her being the daughter of Sarah and her mother's supporters/fans. This is really a bad reason to give someone major publicity and backing for everything she does.

When I first saw Bristol was going to be a contestant on "Dancing with the Stars" this season, my first thought was why? She is not a star or a celebrity so I didn't think that she belonged on the show.

While I went into the show wanting to see Bristol fail, I changed my mind after a few episodes. She wasn't a great dancer but she seemed nice enough. I still didn't think she would make it to the finals -- at least not past the first few episodes. I knew that her mother's Tea Party supporters would carry Bristol through past a few less "popular" stars but I underestimated their tenacity.

I was really floored when Bristol kept on continuing on without elimination because she was far from the best dancer of the show. In fact, she was one of the worst compared to the others this season -- definitely the bottom five.

David Hasselhoff and Michael Bolton were definitely the worst dancers on the show and were, likewise, the first to be voted off.

I would say that Mike The Situation Sorrentino, Rick Fox and Kurt Warner are the three second worst group of dancers. I thought that they were entertaining but deserved to be eliminated early on. Fox and Warner lasted a while because of their sports popularity.

In my opinion, Bristol Palin also fits into the same category as the above three participants.

Margaret Cho and Kyle Massey were slightly better dancers than all of the above because they have a sense of performance, even though lacking technical prowess. Cho was voted off early on but Massey made it to the finals because he was a great performer and some of it is because of his popularity with younger fans.

I think Florence Henderson should have gone on a bit further but probably not to the finals. I thought she was a great performer and had some technical talent. She was voted off a few eliminations too soon.

My first prediction for the finals consisted of Audrina Patridge, Brandy, and Jennifer Grey. These were the top three best performers with all of the technical tools to be great dancers. Of course, Jennifer Grey was my and most fans' choice to be the winner this season and she did, deservedly so.

Partridge was eliminated much, much too soon. Brandy deserved to make it to the top 5 and the finals. I thought for sure Brandy would make it to the finals and put up a good battle against Jennifer Grey. It was not to be and Brandy was shockingly eliminated before making it to the final three which is insane to me.

I don't think Massey deserved to be in the finals but at least he gave a good performance with each of his dances. He obviously got a popular vote but somewhat deserved it.

Bristol really did not deserve to make it to the finals. She did go from a bad to mediocre dancer but remained less than a mediocre performer.

The question is how did Bristol get this far? Anyone who thinks that her mother's political popularity played no part in Bristol not being eliminated early on and making it to the finals is lying to themselves. I really think that is the only reason she made it at all on the show.

There were tons and tons of Tea Party supporters on and off-line rallying to get the votes for Bristol simply because she is Sarah Palin's daughter. This is just wrong!

"Dancing with the Stars" is about the dancing and performing of all of the stars as they receive training from professional dancers. This is not a political show and people should not have voted for Bristol just because of her mother's fame as a politician.

Why would any voter vote for a politician's child simply because of that fact? That is absurd and a total waste of time. The show is about dancing, not politics. Why was everyone so stuck on voting for a dancing competition show as if it were a political campaign? What did voters hope to accomplish? Just to vote Bristol into winning a dancing competition? To political make a statement? Ridiculous.

Even if I were a Palin supporter, I would never vote for her child in a competition unless the child was deserving of winning based on her own talent and merit. I would never vote for someone just because they are related to someone I like and support. The notion itself is absurd.

Millions of Tea Party members voted for Bristol, spending weeks and weeks of time gathering votes for her. Her mother even showed up a few times with her silly grin and even her dorky husband and rude children showed up a few times. On these days, even more people watched the show because of the Palins.

Fine, vote for someone because you like their beliefs. This happens all too often and it will never change because it's human nature for some people to do that. I will concede this fact but I really disagree with Bristol, Willow and many Tea Party members yelling about everyone who voted against or talked negatively about Bristol as being "haters." Contrary to their opinions, "Dancing with the Stars" is about competition and who is the best dancer, not politics. These so-called "haters" went out of their way to vote against Bristol and call it a political thing. This is what all of the Palin supporters are blabbing about.

The fact of the matter is that Bristol is not a great dancer. Several of the stars in this competition were either great dancers or turned into good dancers with great performances. Bristol is neither of those. In a fair world of people who voted for the facts, Bristol would have been eliminated about half way through.

"Dancing with the Stars" is not a political thing but many people turned it into such. This is exactly why I don't vote. Too many people vote based on personal beliefs about religion, morals, the way they look, their income/popularity status, and many other things that have nothing to do with a politician doing his/her job proficiently. George bush was voted into office mainly because of his Christian views -- one of the reasons this country was founded was on the separation of church and state. Many people voted for McCain/Palin because of her looks. The list goes on and on. Too many people do not vote for the focus of a competition or political election, they vote for their beliefs that have nothing to do with the competition or election. It skews the votes for all the wrong reasons.

Did you vote for Bristol on "Dancing with the Stars" and, if so, why?