“Even though some feminists view her advocacy of conservative ideas as a setback for women, it is clear to me that women will only be perceived as individuals – truly equal to men – when there are women in politics who reside all along the ideological spectrum,” says Brown.
No one would presume that conservative talk-radio king Rush Limbaugh and MSNBC progressive provocateur Keith Olbermann hold the same views simply because they’re men.
In short, we’ll know that gender parity in presidential politics has arrived when both major parties’ nominees are women.
We've had 54 elections since George Washington stepped down in 1796, and all of the major-party nominees have been men.
Palin represents not only the anti-establishment, as so many are wont to refer to her brand of politics, but also the anti-elite. She did not attend an Ivy League university, as did our last four presidents. She attended four colleges over five years (from 1982-1987) and, while some view this as evidence of a lack of intellectual curiosity, it might be thought of more appropriately as a mark of tenacity and resiliency.
“Like many of our past politicians and presidents – Democrats Andrew Jackson and Harry Truman especially come to mind – she pulled herself up by her bootstraps and followed her rising star to the national stage,” says Brown.
Which is why, within specific voting blocs, her endorsement carries weight.
Yet no one, including friends, knows where she will take her potency, if anywhere.
“In the end, her endorsement power is being watched much more closely by the national media and the inside-the-beltway crowd than it is by actual voters,” says Wood.
“While national pundits are giving Palin credit for Joe Miller’s shocking upset in Alaska” over incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, he adds, “most of the observers on the ground there say it was a ballot referendum about abortion which gave him the biggest boost.”