All Others "Palin" Comparison

It is incredible to me that men continue to question the ability of women to ... function. I just listened to the introduction of Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican candidate for Vice President, and with the mikes still on, the male commentators were already asking the question: If anything happens to the President, can she assume the office?

Yes. Let me list her credentials: (1) she's a woman (2) she's a wife (3) she's a mother (4) she's been a mayor and is now a govenor, and (5) she's an athlete who knows how to work with a team to accomplish a shared goal: winning.

Gov. Palin has more life experience with both time management and job performance than many politicians! She knows and lives multi-tasking, and apparently does it well. She's well-educated and can earn her own living, but she praises her life as part of the family unit. She knows how to volunteer her time to make other people's lives better and does not either disregard nor gloss over her service to the PTA, her coaching women's athletics, her passion for riding snowmobiles, her membership in and support of unions, her parents' working roots, her long-standing membership in the NRA, her stand against abortion, her commitment to her community, her patriotic commitment to her country and her son, who is serving in the US Army, and her determination not to do something just because someone else thinks she should. She has the ethics that allow her to examine the issues and make her own decision, not just to go along to get along.

When women lose their husbands through divorce or death, they have to carry on regardless of the hardships that loss imposes on them and their family. My mother was left a widow with 6 children -- and no option to walk out the door and let someone else do the job she began with her husband. The women I know do whatever it takes, as does Gov. Palin, who gave birth to a son with Down's Syndrome this past April, a son who was with her on the stage today. What women don't know when they are left alone, they first learn and then they do. If the President dies while in office, the Vice-President will assume the duties of the office -- even if she's a woman! The office of President is not a gender-based position.

That she is a woman is also not part of the qualification process. The snide asides and snarky smiles about her knickname in high school, Sara Barracuda, are simply indicative of the lack of respect for competent, competitive women. What is an admired trait in a man can also be a positive trait in a woman, so move past the color of one candidate's skin and the gender of another. Any man or woman who has the personal integrity to say no to a bill passed by Congress that doesn't benefit the people of the state for which it is intended and wastes taxpayers' money in the process, can handle the office of President of the United States of America.

I'm not wowed that John McCain is 72 years old today, but I'm not concerned that his running mate is a well-educated, articulate, experienced female govenor who would assume his duties if he is unable to fulfill them. Gov. Palin has qualifications above and beyond what most politicians brag about, and appears to be the kind of person this country needs in the Executive Office.