I like Palin. She's seems down to earth, Conservative, and I like her DRILL, DRILL, DRILL rhetoric.

However my wife, also a Conservative, did not want Palin because she felt it would be difficult for her to be able to fulfill her duties as VP and obviously more-so if she needed to assume the Presidency.

I meant to add: difficult while raising her children.

The Palinhaters are under the covers and there's a monster under the bed. Fear is a nightlight that gives them no sleep or comfort, only the reminder that it is there to keep the monster at bay.

It truely is a fear of the unknown.

My wife loves Palin as much as I do; I think.

Sure she has a lot on her plate, but as VP or POTUS she would have an even larger support group than she does now.

There are some people, especially women, who just seem to "get it done" with little fuss. They have time-management and prioritizing skills that far exceed the norm. I have an Executive type daughter who balances serious work responsibilities while making a home for three children with myriad activities (two were premature twins) and a quadriplegic husband. She also plays in a ladies soccer league, sometimes two. So, I am not in the least skeptical of Palin's ability to juggle diverse responsibility.

My concern is that the all out assault that will be turned on her and the family over the next couple of years will turn her away from the national stage. I certainly would not fault her. I think we need her more than she needs us.

Freeburg gets it.

Great post. Which reminds me, I have a good story about attending a formal Washington luncheon several weeks ago that centered around a discussion of Palin. It was outrageous and for whatever reason, I decided not to write about it. But now you've gone and egged me on and I'm going to sit down and write about it soon as I can. You're right. So is Morgan.

Her best attribute: she has exquisite taste in the people she chooses to drive insane.

As I wrote the day of her Dayton speech:

"Who'd a thunk Ronnie would come back as the hottest chick on the planet."

She has had a profound effect on me. She brought back the memories and emotions of a real family. I am now back together with my first wife. We divorced twenty five years ago. Whatever her future I will always be thankful.

She is everything they said they wanted*; and she does not acknowledge them. She is a heretic.

*I can bring home the bacon; fry it up in a pan; and never ever let you forget you're a man."

Do you know what was unusual about this last presidential campaign? The Republican nominees both had children in the military, and the Democratic vice-presidential nominee had a child in the military. The Democratic presidential nominee's children were too young for that.

That is, I think, a good thing. I think it says something about our country that the nominees have this distinction - and if you think that wasn't a consideration for the VP candidates, you are fooling yourself.

"However my wife, also a Conservative, did not want Palin because she felt it would be difficult for her to be able to fulfill her duties as VP and obviously more-so if she needed to assume the Presidency."

Presumably she would have the same problem with a male candidate.

The word that comes most clearly to mind when I think of Governor Palin is wholesome.

I know it's an archaic word; we certainly don't hear it much, these days. But I consider it a high compliment, right up there with integrity -- another quality Governor Palin apparently possesses.

She possesses definite, uncomplicated moral standards.
She says what she means and means what she says.
She won't betray you, whether for personal advantage or in service to "a higher cause."
She doesn't represent herself as being anything other than what and who she is.

The barons of the political Establishment can't find anything there to attack. So they focus on her small-town Alaskan origins and her physical beauty: a remarkable pair of targets, considering the high value Americans place on both those things. And in time -- hopefully not too much time -- it will rebound against them.

You got it Francis, she's wholesome in appearance and wholesome in appearance. Even that obviously
photoshopped picture that accompanied this link is just slightly above risque for a portrait. Of course they had to horribly distort her image, in a scolding fury or some goofy sexpot in order for their distraction campaign to work

An American everywoman, who hunts, jogs, probably can still play a decent game of basketball, and
manages the family and the state of Alaska. I wouldn't like to be in her gunsights if she gets
mad; that applies equally to Levi, or Vladimir Putin. She has more guts than the rest of the party put together, having challenged the One first on his life project, and then blaspheming
the mighty stimulus's raison d'etre. I think we covered this point, back when the mutineer engaged us, in a pointless round robin

I will speak very bluntly so as not to be misunderstood. Sarah Palin was not prepared to become even a vice president. This was very apparent during her first few media interviews. If she does a lot of studying re the nation's political history, and that regarding the other 49 states, guided by an astute political science professor, she probably could make a successful run for President when Obama steps down. It was not her "beauty" but her ignorance (her lack of knowledge, not stupidity) that weighed against her.