MSM SHAMELESS, WILL STOP AT NOTHING!

October 15, 2008 12:00am

LEVI Johnston, who's having a baby with the daughter of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, can't believe all the things he's hearing.

No, he wasn't held against his will on the campaign trail. No, he's not being forced into a shotgun wedding with 17-year-old Bristol Palin.

"None of that's true," Mr Johnston, 18, said in his first solo interview.

"We both love each other. We both want to marry each other. And that's what we are going to do."

Standing in the driveway of his family home in the small Alaska town of Wasilla, Mr Johnston agreed to talk, despite the presidential campaign's early advice to avoid the media.

"They're not telling me anything right now," he said as he checked his BlackBerry.

"It's pretty chill."

Not surprisingly, Mr Johnston was a little shocked when he learned about Bristol's pregnancy, but he said he quickly embraced the prospects of fatherhood. The baby is due on December 18.

Mr Johnston has dropped out of school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician.

He has hinted he would like a boy.

"I'm looking forward to having him," he said.

"I'm going to take him hunting and fishing. He'll be everywhere with me."

Mr Johnston, considered a heart-throb in Wasilla where Sarah Palin used to be mayor, said he wanted to set the record straight on a few issues.

For starters, he said his MySpace page was a joke - the one that claimed he said: "I'm a . . . redneck" and "I don't want kids".

He said his friends created the page a few years ago, and he had nothing to do with it.

Mr Johnston said he had dated Bristol since his freshman year in high school.

"We were planning on getting married a long time ago, with or without the kid. That was the plan from the start."

He provided few details about next year's wedding, but said the planning had started.

Mr Johnston is an avid hunter. He's dark-haired, tall and muscular, sports a bit of stubble and drives a red Chevy Silverado truck.

He said he wasn't forced to campaign with Bristol's mother. Bristol invited him and he jumped at the chance.

It was a whirlwind experience for Mr Johnston, who was seated with the Palins at the Republican Convention.

"At first, I was nervous," he said. "Then I was like, 'Whatever'."

It hadn't changed him.

"I'm still the same old boy," Mr Johnston said. "I'm just a workin' man."

And now he's also about to become a family man.

"We're up for it. I'm excited to have my first kid. It's going to be a lot of hard work but we can handle it."

What about his politics?

Mr Johnston said he wasn't an expert on politics by any stretch. Asked about Barack Obama, he replied: "I don't know anything about him. He seems like a good guy. I like him."

But he's still rooting for John McCain and Sarah Palin.

"I just hope she wins," he said. "She's my future mother-in-law. She better win."