Why, in the wake of her resignation as Governor of Alaska, do the mainstream media continue their efforts to destroy Sarah Palin? What right do the likes of Maureen Dowd and her ilk have to continue their mean-spirited attempts to besmirch and tarnish Palin’s success in politics by their scornful attacks on her and her family? She is beautiful and accomplished, has a hunk of a manly-man as a husband, and lovely children, but the media elites continue on a warpath of ridicule and derision. Her family’s success is denigrated; they are described as “blue-collar” or derided as Alaskan “hillbillies.” Previously, children of politicians were protected, but the Palin children have been subjected to unprecedented vitriol.

The campaign of personal destruction will not die; her recent resignation provides fodder for those who frantically hope that by writing her political obituary they can remove her from contention in 2012. Newsweek just published a hatchet piece by some left-wing freelancer. The National Post just ran a piece deriding her “loopy notions and puny world view.” Earlier in the month, the New York Times stooped to publishing a piece claiming that Sarah’s hair is thinning! There is even a new superhero comic book about Sarah that portrays her as less than heroic. The Huffington Post and Daily Kos are doing their usual put-downs. Ridiculous ethics complaints continue to be filed against Palin.

Yet while the character assassination continues, SarahPac, Palin’s political action committee, has raised $733,000 since it was formed at the end of January, with an additional $200,000 raised in the few weeks since she announced her resignation. While there is hopeful speculation by the left that Palin is leaving politics, it is highly unlikely. Even if she does, her time in the spotlight of the 2008 election and its aftermath made significant advances for conservatives and women. It’s time for American women to say “thank you” to Sarah Palin.

Palin illustrates that a woman can be feminine while being a strong, smart leader. Sarah Palin’s feminine appearance, charm, and rhetoric transformed the dowdy image of female leadership a la Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, Madeline Albright, or Janet Reno. With her casual and humorous approach to public speaking and her down-home expressions, she made harsh feminist diatribes seem empty, meaningless, out-of-touch and out-of-date. Her savvy, confident demeanor reflects her sense of self as a wife, mother and accomplished career woman. Like Margaret Thatcher, Palin’s soft exterior is a stark contrast to her tough inner strength. Unlike Nancy Pelosi’s surgically induced gash of a smile, which is hard to endure, Palin simply lights up the room when she enters it.

Palin illustrates that a woman can be happily married, have children, and maintain her family priorities while pursuing a demanding career. Sarah’s family is never far from her even when she travels — and this has been a source of ethics complaints by the hateful left. Her husband, Todd, is her chief cheerleader and constant support. The children take turns going on trips with their mother, and the whole family is obviously a part of her calling to public service. The Palins’ decision to have Trig, their 5th child and a Down Syndrome baby, is indicative of the pro-life and pro-family values that make the Palin family so distinctive and rile the left to such hatred.

Palin’s drawing power as a highly sought after public speaker clearly demonstrates that a woman with conservative values represents the ideal for a vast number of American women. Sarah Palin’s blend of femininity and toughness is familiar to conservatives — men and women alike — across the nation. We’ve seen it in our mothers and in teachers and community leaders all our lives. We were happy to see “one of our own” selected as a vice-presidential nominee. Sarah Palin is the type of woman we want our daughters to emulate; she is a role model for young women in high school and college. She embodies the values of faith and family that young married mothers hold and want to pass along to their children. We know that those values are best for happiness and success; Sarah Palin proved that they are embraced by mainstream Americans.

Palin illustrates that a woman can handle the glare of the spotlight and the attacks of the mainstream media. With the notable exceptions of when she stumbled in the Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson interviews (hours-long interviews, by the way, that — unlike the treatment of Obama and Biden’s numerous ludicrous blunders — were condensed and edited for the television programs so as to showcase her mistakes), Sarah Palin was articulate, passionate and persuasive. She is a knowledgeable, fresh and energetic politician who espouses traditional American values. Her elitist critics have blown her areas of weakness out of proportion. She has the intellectual capacity and plenty of time to learn the “inside-the-beltway” lingo and gain foreign policy expertise.

Sarah Palin is clearly a pioneer. Typically, female leaders are single or, if married, childless. Also, when married they are usually married to older, wealthy men; often they are second wives to a man who already has raised a family with a first wife. Sarah Palin appeals to women who want to “have it all” –– including staying happily married to the love of their youth … and bearing his children.

It is no wonder that she appeals to women who want to live the American dream of fulfilling their own potential while helping their husbands and children fulfill theirs. Thank you, Sarah Palin! You proved it can be done.