McCain, Obama agree: Don't use Palin's pregnant daughter as political fodder

John McCain and Barack Obama differ on a host of issues, but the competing campaigns agreed today that the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter should not become political fodder.

Campaigning in Michigan, Obama said the Republican vice presidential candidate's children should be ''off limits'' and cited his own mother, who gave birth to Obama when she was 18.

''This shouldn't be part of our politics, it has no relevance to Governor Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president, and so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories,'' Obama told reporters.

McCain advisers Stephen Schmidt and Mark Salter told reporters in St. Paul today for the Republican National Convention that the campaign learned of Bristol's pregnancy when they vetted her mother.

''Many American families have experiences like this,'' Salter said. ''Unfortunately, it has to play out in the public spotlight.''

Palin, a first-term Alaska governor, and her husband revealed in a statement today that their daughter Bristol was five months pregnant and planned to keep the baby and marry the father.

"We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents,'' Sarah and Todd Palin said in the brief statement.

Schmidt said the GOP presidential campaign decided to disclose the information because of repeated media inquiries about ''dirty, nasty smears'' on the Internet that Bristol may actually be the mother of Sarah Palin's youngest child, Trig, who was born in April with Down syndrome.

Palin spokesman Bill McAllister emphatically denied those rumors.

''Senator McCain's view is this is a private family matter. As parents, [the Palins] love their daughter unconditionally and are going to support their daughter,'' Schmidt said.

''Life happens,'' he said.

''An American family,'' added Salter.

Contributing: Bloomberg News