-- Educated women, scorned for retreating from an "elite" education and careers only to become hockey and soccer moms, adopting, like Sarah Palin, different timetables for different times in their lives.

-- Feminists for Life, whose choices in behalf of the sanctity of life are scorned as "anti-woman" because these feminists believe it morally wrong to choose abortion. Like Sarah Palin, these women understand that hard choices require taking painful ethical responsibility.

-- "Oprah viewers" who thought America's most popular women's talk-show host meant it when she said she would interview women of accomplishment, but who now says she will entertain Sarah Palin only after the election. (She might find it more difficult to get an interview with a vice president.)

-- Working men and women who feel put down by Barack Obama's claim that they are embittered and cling to guns and religion, and who agree with the governor that "we tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco."

-- Men and women who admire John McCain, "the maverick," and who prior to the conventions thought him too conventional for an authentic maverick. His unconventional choice for running mate restores the image of independence.

Voters are continuing to measure the two men at the top of the tickets and their judgment in choosing running mates. The Democrats continue to push the notion that John McCain and George W. are attached at the hip, but Sarah Palin has squeezed the president out of the frame. She's showing America that sometimes the best man for the job is a woman.