Go Sarah

By Emmett Burnett

Note - I wrote this newspaper column about Sarah Palin last November before the Presidental Election. Due to Governor Palin's recent news making decision, I am posting it in my blog:


It’s hard not to like Sarah Palin. Call me smitten, but there’s something about a beauty pageant winner who can field dress a moose.

She transcends the sexes. From the Republican National Convention speech, Minneapolis - St. Paul, we saw a self assured role model, smart, intelligent, power with beauty. Men saw her squint, grit teeth and stab the air with a determined don’t mess with me pointer finger – just like being married. Without thinking, I blurted “yes dear.” This is a powerful woman.

The former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska was so unknown just one month ago that any female could have announced “I am Sarah Palin” and you would of believed her. What endears us to this woman now? Here are some reasons for Palin Power:
She proudly proclaims as not bowing to the good ole boy network. Other female political leaders say it. Palin backs it up; because the same skills for field dressing a moose are applicable to human males.

Palin appeals to men and so does her husband Todd. “We met in high school,” she said. We fell in love, got married, and after all these year’s he’s still my guy.” This is a man’s man: oil worker, snowmobile racer, part Eskimo. He spends much of his time in frigid Alaskan snow and ice. People think Todd smiles all the time. That’s really his teeth chattering.

This is the first woman candidate on the national level with legs, no yellow Chairman Mao pant suit. She proves feminine feminist is not an oxymoron. Helen Reddy never dreamed singing “I am woman hear me roar,” would one day apply to a hockey mom, sports broadcaster, PTA President, beauty pageant winner, hunter, fisherwoman, mayor, governor, and vice presidential candidate all in one. Now that’s a roar.

But perhaps the most poignant Palin appeal is how she’s managed to filet a biased press like an Alaskan salmon Can you imagine the outcry if NBC questioned Hillary Clinton’s motherhood because she ran for public office? Barack Obama has young children. Who will watch them should he be elected? Or are we saying ‘that’s different, he’s a man?’ If we are, then Helen Reddy’s roar is a whimper. Of course that’s a mute point. The liberal media will not question liberal women. In the eyes of the press, liberal women are the only ones who matter.

But Sarah Palin matters.

My wife and I visited Juneau, Alaska last year and saw the governor’s mansion. It had a trampoline in the front yard with her children jumping on it. I wish I had taken a picture of that trampoline. One day it might be in front of the White House.