Sarah Palin makes it O.K. to be a young conservative woman on a college campus. Conservative women didn’t have anyone like Palin to look up to at such a high national level before this. And because she is a woman, even girls who might have liked Hillary Clinton are now listening to conservative ideas. —Catherine Helsley, senior, Randolph-Macon College
Sarah Palin’s success as a national candidate — including her performance in the vice-presidential debate and the five-figure crowds she draws daily — is a giant step forward for women, especially young women. Palin is the most exciting new woman leader in America, and one big reason is that her own accomplishments and personality are what got her the nomination. She is not on the national ticket because she is someone’s spouse or because her husband died, but because of her unique and inspiring professional experience and her extraordinarily compelling qualities. As with John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, she makes Americans want to know more about her.
She speaks as a governor, a wife, the mother of a son going to war, and the mother of a child with special needs. We are told that 90 percent of women expecting a child with Down syndrome opt for an abortion, yet Palin, a sitting governor, let her right-to-life compass determined her course. She is a leader by example who can speak with authority about personal responsibility.
In the face of often vicious personal attacks, Palin exudes a cheerful “can do” optimism without the usual feminist “it’s so tough to be a woman leader” bitterness. Little wonder that America celebrates her success, and that Saturday Night Live had the biggest audience in its history when Palin appeared on the show.
I have heard so many young women express appreciation for what she’s done. “Palin is the American dream for many conservative women. Going from PTA mom to vice presidential nominee, she showed us how to have our cake and eat it too,” said Chelsea Thompson, a senior at Northwestern University. “She shows us how you can be a good mom and do your civic duty too with grace and femininity.”
And toughness. Under enormous and unprecedented pressure, Palin gave the best vice presidential debate performance in a generation. Just think back to the Republican vice presidential candidates and their debates since 1980 — George H. W. Bush, Dan Quayle, Jack Kemp, and Dick Cheney. Distinguished men, but none of them wowed America like Sarah Palin did.
Then look at the Democratic candidates — Walter Mondale, Geraldine Ferraro, Lloyd Bentsen, Al Gore, Joseph Lieberman, and John Edwards. They were predictable, boring, lockstep-liberal ideologues one and all. Even Ferraro, the first woman vice presidential nominee, failed to make an impression.
In contrast, Palin is a spectacular political personality who is energetic and enthusiastic, a focused and commonsense conservative. She is a winning breath of fresh air that many regular women identify with.
Elizabeth Moyer, a recent graduate of the University of San Francisco, told me: “I love her and how feisty she is, like a pioneer woman. She doesn’t need men. I mean that not in the resentment way of modern feminism. She has wonderful men in her life that she loves and works with, but she has no codependency on men. She is a true strong woman.”
Surprisingly, liberal women also joined in with positive opinions after the debate. Hillary Clinton, the woman the Democrats held back from getting their presidential nomination, said, “It’s amazing, you know, she’s been thrust into the national spotlight with very little preparation and I think that all things considered, you saw a very composed and effective debater last night.” Geraldine Ferraro reluctantly conceded, “She did well.”
Even the sourpuss president of the National Organization for Women, Kim Gandy, managed to squeeze out, “I think most feminists would concede that it was better for womankind that Palin did not fare miserably.” This leader of an organization that sees sexism wherever women are “underrepresented” has endorsed the Obama/Biden ticket — the one without a woman.
Ashley Crouch, a senior at the University of Dallas, told me about a meeting of her campus conservative women’s group, NEW (Network of Enlightened Women), where the members discussed why some liberals are so hard on Palin. Ashley said many of them thought, “Liberals don’t agree with what Palin stands for both in her personal life and her philosophy. Even though liberals say women should strive for professional success, what many of them really think is that women should focus on family or on professional success, not both.”
Palin’s cheerfully stated core beliefs and beautiful smile are infectious, and Americans just want to hear more. Does anyone seriously think 73 million Americans tuned in to see the ultimate Washington insider, Joe Biden?
I remember how Katie Couric’s liberal media colleagues used to mock Ronald Reagan as a good-looking know-nothing. Many conservatives have always found Couric “annoying,” but it took Palin to use the precise word. Now, with a great debate under her belt and thousands of Americans flocking to her rallies, Palin has stopped wasting time on annoying reporters.
The first woman on a Republican presidential ticket is drawing the party’s most enthusiastic crowds and supporters in decades. She shows that there are no limits to what a woman can do in America. Is she a once-in-a-century phenomenon, someone who will continue to captivate the American people and whose greatest achievements are yet to come?
You betcha.
—Michelle Easton is on leave as president of the Herndon, Virginia-based Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, an organization that promotes conservative women.
