Sarah Palin just may be the most complete woman I have ever seen!

She’s a mayor and governor, a mom, a married woman with 5 children who has been with the same man she married since high school, she hunts and shots, is an accomplished athlete, she’ sexy (yes, it’s OK to acknowledge the obvious and not take offense) and smart, intelligent, a problem solver, tough as nails . . . what’s not to love!

And, that, boys and girls, is why tired sour old pusses like Sally Quinn and Maureen Dowd dislike her and are threatened by her. She’s everything they aren’t. If that wasn’t enough Sarah is clearly happy with who she is! That’s got to be galling to these old time, out of vogue, feminists. It’s not their ages that make them passe, its their adherence to the 70′s feminist model orthodoxy … the one so many young women today have chosen to reject.

Sarah’s brand of feminism is not an extreme of the left or of the right. Sarah Palin is not Phyllis Schlafly or Dr. Laura or Gloria Steinem. In truth, Sarah chose a life style someplace in the middle. She may not have it all, but she’s damn close! And she’s authentic in a way those other pusses will never be, will never understand or “get”.

Shouldn’t old time feminists like Sally and Maureen be singing Sarah’s praises? Wasn’t the reason all those bras were burned was so women would have the right to choose? Well, yes and no. The truth is, the underlying current of the 70′s feminism was, the right to choose really meant the right to choose abortion, to disparage men, to choose career over family. You always had the feeling that when a woman choose not to have a career or “just” to have a family that the choice was considered second rate. I think many women felt their choice of a traditional family was looked down on and thought to be quaint . . . a throw back to yesteryear.

That’s sad, because the right ot choose should mean exactly that; and either choice should be celebrated and not diminished by either side. That having be said let me be perfectly clear. The feminism of the 60′s and 70′s had to be fought and many of the issues then remain with us now, not the least of which is the rampant sexism that plagued Hillary and which Sarah and women across the country deal with on a daily basis.

I grew up in a single family home. My mother had to work nights (11pm to 7am) as a machinist for 14 years because my father, the sperm donor, (a term Dr. Laura coined to identify men who father children, leave, and do nothing to support them) deserted my mother leaving her with two little girls to support, ages 4 and 5 years respectively. How she did everything I will never understand. She worked nights, made sure we had piano lessons, tap dancing lessons, she made our clothes, canned food, made our lives as complete as she could under the circumstances she was given.

How far have we come? When my mother wanted to buy a house, she had to have my grandfather co-sign for the loan because banks didn’t lend money to divorced single women. Women didn’t have the ability to get credit in their own names until 1976 when a law was passed preventing banks and credit card companies from discriminating.

Title IX had yet to be passed. For those who don’t know Title IX gives women the same rights and access to sports as men. Before that, girls and women were cheated, big time. When I taught and coached in the 70′s I was also the girls department head. The high school budget for boys sports teams was $50,000.00 . . . a tidy sum in the 70′s. The budget for the girls sports teams was $5,000.00. I taught in one of the wealthiest communities in Connecticut and we had to hold bake sales to get new uniforms for the girls hockey team because there was no money in the budget!

How far do we still have to go? When I left teaching I became a business woman through a series of circumstances in my life. I’ve been in business with a male partner (my husband at the time) and without and I can tell you first hand that it is definitely easier trying to finance a business when lenders think there is a man that is heading the operation. Little has changed over the years. Here we are in 2008, and women . . . small business owners for the most part . . . already acknowledged to be a primary engine in the U.S. economy get little help!

After last night’s speech at the Republican Convention, America has a new political leader. Women have a new hero, and for all the rest of you who don’t get it . . . she’s our next Vice President! Deal with it!

You go girl! You go girl! You go girl!