Women need to be themselves- be women- in politics. Public schools, child care, war, food prices, violence, foreign policy ( in countries where women are enslaved) are all issues presidents and senators deal with. Women need to see these issues being dealt with by women.
We have seen absorbed and learned to live within the male-defined world. We react to male defined debates. ( see the derision heaved towards her for being a PTA president- astounding. There is everything right about that role of PTA president.)

We need to see women politicians be themselves and Palin does this very well.
She inherited the feminist revolution; Title IX, etc.

True she calls herself pro life, but she appointed a Planned Parenthood Board Member to the AK Supreme Court and she had amniocentesis when pregnant with her fifth child.

I like seeing women on TV talking policy. I may not agree with everything a woman says, but listening to them, when they are being themselves is amazing to me.

I think Michelle Obama is being stifled in the role of First Lady( a term that needs to go away IMO) and she is shuttled around when needed. She is a very educated and smart woman, but I don't get a sense of her- and I think it is the confines of the history of the role of First Lady.

By shaking off the "patriarchial" yoke that we are raised under we emerge as free women. I encourage this.

Palin....This "high school girl" with lots of gumption and fight in her goes up in airplanes and shoots wolves as they run...  I guess she finds that thrilling...  to me it is plain disgusting, as are her attitudes about the value of wildlife and natural  beauty.... she is everything bad about the "drill baby drill" mindset... for people like her burning every last lump of coal is worth the ravaged landscape, the destruction, the pollution, as long as we keep the SUV full of cheap gas.... what makes her so popular as a guest on talk shows is her controversial image and her girly looks... which obviously makes some women think she is "just like them".  The sooner she drops out of politics for good the better.

You bring up a very interesting issue. How are women perceived politically. Although I do not agree with Palin's poltical platform it was clear that most of the criticism towards her was more revealing of the misogyny at large  in the media, politics and in also the electorate. I do agree that she showed gumption and far more honesty about where she stood whether you agreed or not than most of the candidates on both sides. It definitely helped her that she has a certain charisma that attracted her supporters and even baffled her detractors.

To me Sara Palin reflects more the demise of the feminist movement by the way the "liberal" left went straight to the juggler unabashedly. Of course the hyenas were twice as vicious with Hillary Clinton, since Clinton has more substance that threatened their stronghold of the political left.

This election revealed how corrupt and how money buys votes. Oprah's pandering to anyone that will bring her fans and money is invalid. Oprah has had so many oops moments, e.g., Frey,  charlatan doctors, her African school fiasco etc. that she is as big and transparent as a glass house thereby cashing in her credibility chips.

As for Michele Obama, the woman who secretly hates her country, has yet to apologize to Hillary Clinton for her demeaning and ugly statements against her and is fine with her husband's inept performance. So far the best he has done is claim the thrown. Two poseurs in the WH along with a bevy of amateurs are we lucky or what?

N.O.W., Ms. Magazine and just about every feminist organization turned against both Clinton and Palin. Clinton after the votes were stolen from her, with the help of Brasil for the Obama campaign and Sara Palin from all sides of the feminist movement when the media was making mince meat out of her for her sexual appeal and her bimbo status. No one came to her aid and the biggest culprits were women themselves. NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd was vitriolic about both of them. Arianna Huffington was bursting at the seems to claw them. Any intelligent woman who was following this dog and pony show called the campaign should have seen the ugliness of this society that claims to be a democracy.

We need to use this experience as a wake call. It doesn't matter if you are left or right, Democrat or Republican or Independent equality, fairness and justice is the basic fabric of a true democracy, what happened here?