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Assimilating with panache

"I am a lion," oldest sister of the family next door explained as she and her siblings approached our front porch late afternoon on this Halloween Night, transmogrifying a Muslim headscarf into the golden mane of the King of the Jungle. Middle sister was also a cat, more of the domestic variety. They have a couple of pet cats at home across the yard and often wave and chat with us when we're out wrangling Tiny.

The sisters had learned how to apply the striking cat make-up at a neighborhood festival across the Creek in East Boston last summer. Baby sister (right) may or may not have been a tiger (note striped sleeves). Lots of cat-themed fabrics. Very imaginative costuming. They brought a little package of cat toys as a hostess gift for Tiny.

"We wanted to scare you," they teased. We may not have been frightened, but as far as Tiny was concerned, it was a terrorist attack. Especially on the part of baby sister, who pursued her across the yard, into the house and up the stairs for elusive petting opportunities. We hadn't had trick-or-treaters for years since the neighborhood kids had grown up, moved away and had kids of their own. Delightful to see the latest wave of immigrants assimilating with such panache — playing with elements of their native culture — to this all-American autumn ritual.

Update: More faunal delights at Modulator's Friday Ark, now boarding.

Sarah "a genius controlling the world from her Facebook page"?

Show 'em a little ankle and leave 'em laughing, begging for more. Sarah Palin's girly strategery is leaving political adversaries inside the Beltway and their media fellow travelers reeling. They never did get her. Above, a frame from today's Day by Day cartoon, "Waiting for GOP."

ABC White House reporter and twitterer extraordinaire Jake Tapper's Sunday Roundtable of talking heads was inclined to disagree with Tapper's father-in-law, but we think the old man's onto something:

Sarah Palin is “a genius controlling the world from her FaceBook page.”

She throws the "death panel" bomb, the commentariat explodes and lawmakers retreat:

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, one of six lawmakers negotiating on a Senate bill, said Thursday they had dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration "entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly."

Friday she threw a "pubic option" bomb, and today the Con Man in Chief claims to be backing off, but the Professor is not impressed:

RETREAT? White House Appears Ready To Drop “Public Option.” I suspect it’s a Parthian retreat ["a feigned retreat, luring the enemy into a prepared counterattack. See, e.g., Crassus." Thanks for the new word, Professor Reynolds!].

On the other hand, you've got a real marketing problem when your own people are having to publicly pledge not to kill old people.

"This is no 'retreat,'" emails Robert Bidinotto:

The co-op arrangement is simply the public option by another name, and by a more circuitous, stealthy route — with the same ultimate objective: nationalized healthcare.

Stealth is the very essence of Obama & Company's modus operandi, and we've known it in our gut since that day way back in December of 2006 when bouncing baby candidate Barack Obama sprung onto the national stage full blown from Oprah's brow:

"Obviously it is flattering to get a lot of attention, but I must say it is baffling, particularly to my wife,” Obama quipped.

We cringed at the disingenuousness, but it was when he called us a racist that our heart turned to stone:

Are some voters not going to vote for me because I’m African-American? Those are the same voters who probably wouldn’t vote for me because of my politics.

The silver lining of this dark cloud is our fellow citizens' resounding rejection of the president's ill-concealed contempt for the Shining City Upon a Hill. As we wrote awhile back, "I am tea party woman, hear me roar!"

Update: Cross posted at Amba's Cloven not Crested.

Newsbites and viewsbites and the power of crowd-sourced journalism

Like Tiny twisting and shifting her ears in all directions for environmental clues, we spent much of the day hanging around what Jordan Raynor calls the "Citizen-Powered News Bureau," turning our mind's ear to manageable portions of the 24/7 rush of 140-or-fewer-character newsbites and viewsbites from citizen journalists we're following on Twitter. Like a teaser headine, a well-written tweet invites us to follow the writer's Tiny URL links to larger worlds beyond. Writes Raynor: "News consumers are trusting crowd-sourced journalism to provide them with the news they want because they believe in the idea of a truly free-market journalism system where trusted news sources rise to the top naturally."

"You cannot sustain a campaign of platitudes and clichés over a year and a half if you're running for the presidency," Charles Krauthammer told Megyn Kelly — first woman ever to sub as host of Fox News's flagship "Special Report with Brit Baier" — last night. We cringed at the condescension towards Sarah Palin as we grumbled to the television that oh, yes you can sustain a campaign of platitudes and clichés, indefinitely, if your name is Barack Obama and big media is in the tank for you. Most annoying of all, our beloved Krauthammer agreed with liberal co-panelist Mara Liasson:

Now, as to Palin, I agree entirely with what Mara said. She is — she has star power without any doubt. She has an extremely devoted following. But she is not a serious candidate for the presidency.

She had to go home and study and spend a lot of time on issues in which she was not adept last year, and she hasn't. She has to stop speaking in clichés and platitudes. It won't work.

And how, pray tell, do Charles and Mara know what Sarah has or hasn't been doing beyond official duties since November? You can bet they don't follow AKGovSarahzPalin on Twitter, a great way to keep up with her schedule and priorities [Can't be sure whether she or a staffer does the actual twittering, but like Palin herself, her tweets have an authentic ring about them.] If Krauthammer and Liasson know something, let's have the details. We'd heard rumors just after the election that among other things the Alaska Governor was being mentored on foreign relations and government waste by Republican heavyweight Fred Thompson. As for those Northeast Corridor Republican fuddy-duddies who look down their noses at the hayseed caricature relentlessly spun by a biased, elitist media, we offer this insight from the executive producer of "Saturday Night Live," as quoted by Daniel Henninger during the last weeks of the fall campaign:

Lorne Michaels lives on the forward wave of American life. This week he gave his view of Sarah Palin to EW.com: "I think Palin will continue to be underestimated for a while. I watched the way she connected with people, and she's powerful. Her politics aren't my politics. But you can see that she's a very powerful, very disciplined, incredibly gracious woman. This was her first time out and she's had a huge impact. People connect to her."

But not Charles Krauthammer and fellow members of the fuddy-duddy community. As we wrote in our very first Palin post "It's a girl?" late August last year, "Charles Krauthammer on Fox is saying McCain should pick someone 'safe' like Fred Thompson [Ironic, huh? –ed]. We LOVE Fred, of course, and our sis will remind us that we have a heart too soon made glad, but the Governor of Alaska gets our girls-just-wanna-have-fun juices flowing. Sarah, get your gun!" We're reminded of something Dr. Krauthammer said just the other day about President Obama's poor judgment in siding with the would-be dictator of Honduras:

Look, a rule of thumb here is whenever you find yourself on the side of Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, and the Castro twins, you ought to re-examine your assumptions.

To you, sir, we would add our own rule of thumb:

Whenever you find yourself on the side of Mara Liasson, you ought to re-examine your assumptions.

And look. Please try to avoid using that toe-curling Liassonism, "Look," at the start of every declarative sentence.

Update: Look, all animals, all the time at Modulator's Friday Ark #250.

GOP is back. A little bird told me.

"Whoever the party leaders selected for last night's [GOP Senate-House fundraiser] keynote could legitimately claim a modicum of heir transparency," observes the WaPo's Dana Milbank. "Hence the intrigue over the two would-be keynote speakers, Gingrich and Palin, each with an eye on a 2012 presidential run." See below for details. Above, Newt keynotes as GOPs "intellectual center" (Tucker Carlson's words) while Sarah the "It Girl" flashes a bit of political ankle. (C-Span screen grab, left, Getty Images, right)

"Like broken clock, TIME got it right. McCain's tweet at GOP funder was moment of truth: GOP = back!" we twittered in response to a Howard Kurtz twitter query this morning. More about the unanticipated effect McCain's tweet had on us, but first, Kurtz's query:

Is Twitter just a fun hangout, or do you buy the Time-cover argument that it's changing the way we communicate and get information?

We're with Ed Morrissey, who twittered back "Both." Take that McCain tweet referenced above. It was fun, informationally enriching AND had an energizing psychological effect that traveled instantaneously over the internet from the Washington Convention Center straight into our own heart and mind:

Great to see Sarah and Todd at the dinner tonight — nice reunion!

We just happened to have been on our Tweet Deck and caught it live. We missed the dinner speeches at the time but caught some of Newt Gingrich's keynote in wee-hour C-Span reruns. Good, substantive stuff that's music to the ears of anti-statists like us. Will try to catch up today. We heard emcee Jon Voight was a smash, "taking a bite out of the Obama administration," as Fox & Friends hostess Gretchen Carlson described his crowd pleasing welcome. There'd been a frenzied buzz amongst the commentariat about whether Palin would or would not show, would or would not speak:

Palin was invited to be the keynote speaker at the dinner. What happened next, however, is a matter of hot dispute. Party officials say she accepted and reneged. Palin loyalists say she was merely mulling the offer. Either way, the party moved on and invited Gingrich to be the substitute keynoter.

In recent days, Palin was reinvited to the event, but that invitation was rescinded over concerns that the darling of the conservative base would steal the spotlight from Gingrich…

Finally, a compromise of sorts was reached: Palin would attend the event and be given a seat of honor, but would not have a speaking role.

Instead, she would be speaking to a much bigger audience, having taped an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity (viewership in excess of 3 million). It was scheduled to air at 9 p.m. — exactly the moment Gingrich was scheduled to begin his keynote address.

'Sounds like her handlers know how to put a little flash of ankle to good use. Press reactions this morning were all over the place, from the WaPo's Dana Banks's intoxicated "Keynoter or Not, Palin Steals Spotlight at GOP Fundraiser" to CQ Politics's soberer "Gingrich Trumps Palin at GOP Gala." Take your pick. There's room for both Sarah's gung ho charisma and Gingrich's equally gung ho gravitas in this big Republican tent. As Newt told Fox & Friends this morning, "I'm an inclusionist, not an exclusionist. I think it's more fun to be a majority." Besides, Sarah's a quick study and was heard seamlessly incorporating Newtonian ideas and phraseology — duly credited — into a speech she gave last week. Enter, stage left, a Palinophobe looking for dirt:

Newt Gingrich takes no issue with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for using his words in a speech she gave last week. In fact, he'd be happy if more Republicans espoused his ideas, a spokesman for the former House speaker said Monday.

Blogger Geoffrey Dunn, who is writing a book about Palin, accused the former Republican vice presidential candidate [in a Huffington Post piece] of lifting phrases and ideas at length from an article co-written by Gingrich in 2005.

Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler said the accusation was comical. "If she used Newt's ideas in a speech and gave him credit for them, there certainly is zero issue," Tyler said.

As we twittered Jake Tapper in response to a tweet of his quoting that Gingrich spokesman:

Lefties fear charismatic Sarah, armed with Newt's words she agrees with & credits, will be unbeatable!

But woman does not live by Twitter alone. Video of the GOP Senate-House Dinner, start to finish, now available at C-Span:

Fmr. House Speaker Newt Gingrich stressed getting back to “first principles” as he addressed the 2009 Republican Senate-House Dinner. Criticizing Pres. Obama’s “utopian idealism,” Mr. Gingrich said the GOP now faces opportunities to regain the White House and Congress.

This just in on Fox from commentator Tucker Carlson, who acknowledges the excitement Sarah brings to any gathering but notes: "Newt Is emerging, I think as the intellectual center of the GOP. People are looking to him for ideas, and I think he's running for president."

Update: Maggie's links.

When you're hot, you're hot

When Dr. Helen popped up on our blog in the PajamasTV ad, left, promoting her recent "Who is John Galt?" interview with Pajamas Media alpha males Roger L. Simon and Bill Whittle, that other hottie, Sarah Palin, came to mind. Separated at birth?

"When people actually meet her, they're blown away"

"Someone called me a redneck woman once, and you know what I said back? 'Why thank you,'" quipped the Divine Mrs. P at one of her rapturous rallies yesterday. She's on a roll, and media fuddy-duddies are falling in droves (see below). Above, statue by Rudolph Tegner (1873-1950) of Sarah Palin lookalike, woman warrior Goddess of Wisdom Athena, emerging from John McCain's Zeus's brow.

"I think Palin will continue to be underestimated for a while. I watched the way she connected with people, and she's powerful." 'Sounds like something we might have said, but it was "Saturday Night Live" Executive Producer Lorne Michaels (!), cited by the WSJs Daniel Henninger this morning. In fact, all but the most hard-boiled of Palin's critics are falling — like flies  — head over heels. First a few excerpts from Henninger's breath-of-fresh-air column, and then on to the Palin-ing of MSNBC:

The stoning of Sarah Palin has exposed enough cultural fissures in American politics to occupy strategists full-time until 2012. We now see there is a left-to-right elite centered in New York, Washington, Hollywood and Silicon Valley who hand down judgments of the nation's mortals from their perch atop the Bell Curve.

It seems only yesterday that the most critical skill in presidential politics was being able to connect to people in places like Bronko's bar or Saddleback Church. When Gov. Palin showed she excelled at that, the goal posts suddenly moved and the new game was being able to talk the talk in London, Paris, Tehran or Moscow. She looks about a half-step behind Sen. Obama on that learning curve.

Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of "Saturday Night Live," lives on the forward wave of American life. This week he gave his view of Sarah Palin to EW.com: "I think Palin will continue to be underestimated for a while. I watched the way she connected with people, and she's powerful. Her politics aren't my politics. But you can see that she's a very powerful, very disciplined, incredibly gracious woman. This was her first time out and she's had a huge impact. People connect to her."

Hephaestus (with axe, above, in detail from vase painting) was the "patron of all craftsmen, principally those working with metal [plumbers included?]," who "split the head of Zeus with an axe, from which Athena appeared fully armed," according to Encyclopedia Mythica.

We connected to Sarah, big time, the moment she sprung full blown into our consciousness in a Larry Kudlow interview we stumbled upon at YouTube two months back when rumors were rumbling that the Alaska Governor would be McCain's VP pick. As for the Palin-ing of MSNBC, we happened to catch what may have been a bellwether moment over there this morning. Former Republican Florida Rep and current "anchorman" Joe Scarborough has been unwatchable since he left "public service" and fell in with the Northeast Corridor herd at MSNBC. But today "Morning Joe" was transmogrified, going out of his way to praise the wit and wisdom of Sarah Palin, to the consternation of his horrified fellow anchors:

What we're finding is that when people actually meet her, they're blown away.

"Yes, she's pretty," sniffed the scowling anchorette beside him, attempting to trivialize the issue, but Joe brought out his big guns and left her biting the dust:

When Jack Welsh met her, he was extremely impressed, not with how she looks but with her intellect.

The diehards are still digging, of course. Digging themselves into a hole. Andrea Mitchell & Company are shocked, shocked at Palin's $150,000 clothing allowance [worth every pretty penny, in our view], and Brian Williams is deeply concerned that Caribou Barbie hasn't released her medical records yet [hoping against hope for something nasty, Brian?], but the Northeast Corridor holdouts' desperation speaks for itself.

Update: A totally excellent related post from Bird Dog at Maggie's:

I promise you that, if she had a "D" after her name, she would be a MSM heroine. Colorful and exotic. The Dems would find a way to make her "Josephine Sixpack" - "The fresh voice of the American worker from the American Frontier." Anybody who criticized her would be slammed as "classist" or "intellectual snobs" or "out of touch with real Americans."

Colorful and exotic, a fresh voice of the American Frontier, a real American. YES! So glad she's on our side.

Update: A mental ward full of voices we're glad are on our side at Dr. Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities.

"The natural order of the world is chaos, not calm"

"The natural order of the world is chaos, not calm," writes scholar of ancient military history and modrin-day fahmah Victor Davis Hanson in the quotation not of the day or the week or the year but of the centuries. Had we, as a nation, thought to ask Tiny — above keeping the woodpile safe for democracy this morning — we would never have fallen for any of the parade of Utopianist cure-alls that keep torpedoing ineffectually in from the left,

“'They each gambled on a game where they could affect the outcome,' said an unnamed spokesman for the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), the bi-partisan organization that sponsors the forum," writes our online satirist of choice, Scott Ott of Scrappleface re the repercussions of the fact that the "neutral moderator" of tonight's VP debate — Gwen The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama Ifil, is in the tank for you know who:

“Since we’re letting Gwen play such a pivotal role in America’s second favorite pastime, despite her undisclosed stake in the outcome, it didn’t seem right to keep Pete Rose out of the Hall.”

"Who do you think will win Thursday's debate"? asked the WSJ this morning. Last time we checked, Sarah was the one.

We are of the "breath of fresh air" school and were wicked encouraged with our dear friend neo's totally awesome analysis:

But not being an intellectual is hardly the same as lacking intelligence. As a matter of fact, the two can be — and very often are — mutually exclusive. The former is connected with qualities that have much to do with words and the manipulation thereof: smoothness, syntax, pronunciation and accent. Being an intellectual is also at least partly a reflection of educational background. It’s not enough to have a mere college degree these days (Truman could never, never, never be elected now); one must have one from an Ivy school, although BDS proves that even an Ivy degree is hardly enough by itself to stem the tide of contempt when the smooth flow of highfalutin words just isn’t there.

Tuck and ourselves and the puddies are having a Debate Party this evening . . . Just the four of us. Popcorn on tap. To set the stage, this bit from our classic February 11, 2005 post "Bloggers are 'cracking, popping, drilling and peeling their victims open'":

Leftists have become soft and flabby in their thinking over the last 20, 30 or more years because their fellow travelers in the mainstream media — supposed to be keeping them honest — have been giving them a free ride, even as thinkers of the right, not enjoying such reflexive support, have been honing our debating and intellectual survival skills. That leaves the left soft and lazy and the right battle ready.  Enter the bloggers, stage right.  As paleontologist Dr. Vermeij might say, "It isn't going to be pretty." Googling the good doctor, we were thrilled to see his field studies of animal evolution had led him to very much the same place Thomas Sowell has come to in his studies of economics. The leftist utopian dream was doomed from the start because it denied the  economic logic of nature and human nature. The long-repressed voices of opposition in a free society, now ringing loud and clear through talk radio, cable TV and  — of course — the blogosphere, will force the left to rethink its arguments or go extinct.

Neo says "I'm actually considering not watching it at all," but that's like driving by a highway accident. Yah. We can dig it, but could you really do it on the ground?

Update: Viewing relief at Modulator's Friday Ark #225.

Update II: All cats all the time at the fun-filled Carnival of the Cats #238 at the "Weiner Prater" with feline barkers — meowers? — Kashim, Othello and Salome of The Catboys Realm.

If the shoe fits

Inspired by Sarah Palin's signature bright red Naughty Monkey Double Dare peep-toe pumps with three-and-a-half-inch heels, we ferreted out our own mid-seventies-vintage Elkins rosebud-pink, peep-toe pumps with three-and-a-half-inch heels from the back of a neglected closet where they had languished these many years. All that was old is new again,

"The Governor of Alaska gets our girls-just-wanna-have-fun juices flowing," we blogged three weeks back during the rumor-revved hours and minutes leading up to John McCain's announcement of his VP choice, even as members of the fuddy-duddy community counseled a "safe" pick. Now we're getting some insight into what makes those fuddy-duddies tick. "Clearly, a small but influential number of conservatives — almost exclusively from the New York-Washington axis which we will term the 'Northeast Corridor' — could not comprehend Sarah Palin or what she represents, any more than the liberal-left could," writes J.R. Dunn in The American Thinker:

In fact, the liberals can be said to have had a superior grasp of Palin's impact. They, at least, saw her as a threat.

If this is the choice of the conservative base, one said, "Then we need a new base."

Two points are immediately evident: this rhetoric echoed precisely what the liberal media was saying and at the same time was diametrically opposed to what the rest of the country had to say.

In the same way that liberals view the U.S. a racist, militarist monolith, the Northeast Corridor coterie view it as a cultural wasteland populated by backwoodsmen, halfwits who need to be guided by an enlightened but aloof elite.

We totally agree with reader Wemedge's thoughts in the comments:

This is the first article I've read since the Palin announcement which articulates my disappointment with all the Krauthammers, Noonans, Willses, and Brookses at their rejection of someone who is clearly compelling and fresh.

What most disappointed, as so well put by Mr. Dunn was that "so isolated had the Northeast Corridor conservatives become, so deeply embedded in their Jamesian parallel universe, that they couldn't recognize her clear conservative stance, couldn't recognize her personal courage, couldn't, in the end, be bothered to stand with her when she and her family were victimized by the most repellent political attack of our epoch."

So I came, all by myself to the same conclusion that this article did: they're clueless.

"We sold our Governor a pair of red Double Dare Naughty Monkey shoes a couple of weeks ago," the proprietors of Juneau's Shoefly Inc. wrote Fausta the other day. "She just wore those shoes as John McCain announced Governor Sarah Palin from Alaska as his vice president running mate. Although not everyone agrees with her politics, everyone can agree that she wears 'sexy shoes.'" Fuddy-duddies need not apply. Update: "They look like something Daisy Duck would wear," comments Tuck.

Those Northeast Corridor Conservatives need to get out more, beyond their Pauline Kael bubble, like businessman Jay Randhawa of the San Diego firm that markets the "very edgy, very hip, very street" Naughty Monkey shoes favored by Sarah Palin. "He was surprised to learn that Gov. Palin was introduced as Mr. McCain's vice-presidential choice wearing a red pair of peep-toe pumps with 3 1/2-inch heels," reports the WSJ, but instead of staring in incomprehension, he saw an opportunity:

The shoes, marketed by his company's Naughty Monkey line, generally are geared to women in their early-to-mid-20s who go clubbing, he says.

"The age bracket we target is a little younger. It's a very edgy, very hip, very street brand," adds Mr. Randhawa.

Celebrities like Paris Hilton had been photographed in the brand's shoes, but seldom, if ever, a 40-something politician.

Mr. Randhawa says he realized that Gov. Palin's footwear choice offered the chance to pitch the Naughty Monkey line to a new demographic. The company quickly sent out emails to its retailers with a photo of the Alaska governor wearing the shoes and the slogan "I vote for Naughty Monkey!"

Women in their early-to-mid-20s who go clubbing, 40-something politicians, women d'un certain age who blog. Girls just wanna have fun. Unless you're a fuddy-duddy. Yes you, Peggy Noonan. And you, Miss Hillary:

The organizers of an anti-Iran rally Monday rescinded their invitation to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin after Democrats protested that her presence would turn the event into a political rally, McCain campaign and Jewish community sources said.

The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations created a political tempest by inviting Palin to speak without clearing her invitation with another speaker, Senator Hillary Clinton. Clinton promptly dropped out of the event, saying it would be seen as unduly political.

"I guess now we know how deep Hillary's concern for Iranian nukes really is, skin deep," wrote blog buddy Sol of Solomonia in disgust at the disingenuousness of Hillary's posturing:

As soon as she learned that Sarah Palin would be there, she was out the door. Thanks for nothing. I get the feeling she reacted worse to this news than she would have had she heard that Monica would be there making a speech. Nothing, absolutely nothing, trumps cynical selfish partisan politics on Planet Clinton. Not even Iranian nukes.

Or maybe Clinton backed out in fear of her own sensible shoes' being upstaged by Palin's red peep-toe pumps with three-and-a-half-inch heels.

Update: Northeast Corridor regressives progressives liberals weigh in (Bring on the smelling salts.):

"All of my women friends, a week ago Monday, were on the verge of throwing themselves out windows," an author and political activist, Nancy Kricorian of Manhattan, said yesterday. "People were flipping out … Every woman I know was in high hysteria over this. Everyone was just beside themselves with terror that this woman could be our president — our potential next president" …

Even some prominent figures admitted to being overcome by anti-Palin feelings. "I am having Sarah Palin nightmares," an acclaimed playwright and writer, Eve Ensler, wrote on the Huffington Post. She said she was disturbed by the chants about oil and gas drilling during Mrs. Palin's speech to the Republican convention. "I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination," Ms. Ensler wrote.

That's just how Hillary's Pink Offensive made us feel back in the day, but now the shoe's on the other foot. Why can't we all just get along? Our own Dr. Sanity, quoted in the article, has the last word:

A psychiatrist and conservative blogger, Patricia Santy, said the strong emotional reactions are driven by Mrs. Palin's differing with the left-leaning political agenda of many feminists. "Their entire image of themselves is based on the fact that they are paving the way for women. What do they see? Women getting ahead, women being empowered who don't agree with them," Dr. Santy said.

Sorry. We don't have that in your size.

The New Girl Network

"She's like no other female politician I have ever seen, both tough and unreservedly feminine and maternal -- affectionately holding her baby [screenshot above] after having just delivered one of the most important speeches of this election," writes an energized Rachel Campos-Duffy at AOL Living.

"In one short week, I believe that Palin has ushered in a new era of 'mom power' leaving the old guard female politicians like Hillary and Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson looking as stiff and dated as their white, male counterparts," writes  Rachel Campos-Duffy in her "Views from the Home Front" column at AOL Living's parentdish. It turned up at the top of a Google search for "sarah palin lipstick," and like Palin herself, Campos-Duffy's words are a breath of fresh air:

Yes, she made history, but I think she has also made a case for the value of a mother's heart and strength in politics. And she is an inspiration to all moms who are trying to make a difference in their communities. How many of us moms have seen a situation at school, in our town or city that we have wanted to change? Maybe you jumped in, like Palin, and faced down the status quo, but how many more times have we sat back and waited for someone else to do it (we're too busy, right?)? Or, started to take on a problem only to back out when the heat turned up and the criticism turned personal? I've been there and I believe many of you have too.

"EXCELLENT," writes our imail correspondent, "although it makes me feel ashamed of myself for gnashing my teeth, and wringing my hands, while doing nothing back in the seventies to point out that the [touchy-feely] Middle School Concept Emperor had no clothes":

She: I wish I had kept the "Middle School Handbook" explaining why the Middle School Concept [housing 5th-6th and 7th-8th grades together] was such a brilliant idea. I knew the minute I read it, when Matt was entering 5th grade, that it was ALL WRONG.

We: The Middle School Concept website claims they "encourage parent involvement."

She: Yes, re: parental involvement, if you walk in lockstep with the Marxist party line. I am glad you are pursuing this, but let's move on. I am nauseated at "why Susan slept" … "Susan Slept Here" starring Debbie Reynolds."

"It's encouraging that AOL has such a sensible writer on their Living pages," we i'ed:

She: Yes … inroads are being made. Some of the commentary at Lucianne said, to the effect, "I'm over 60, and I knew the pendulum would swing eventually, but I never dared dream it would swing within my lifetime." One oldster said he/she hoped he/she could hang on until November to cast a vote.

We: Yes, she/he can … for the country!

She: If that person were a RAT, he/she wouldn't have to worry. Their dead people vote early and often. I believe that Socks and Buddy are still registered Democrats, as well.

Speaking of Campo-Duffy's "old guard female politicians like Hillary and Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson looking as stiff and dated as their white, male counterparts," we just happened to have on hand from yesterday this stiff and dated-looking image of candidate Obama's white, male running mate lying to a CNN anchor.

A few more words from Campo-Duffy, and then be sure to read the whole thing:

Palin's appeal to women, and to moms in particular, is that, regardless of party affiliation, she really is just like us, and she is proof that being who we are can deliver very successful results. No whining, no androgynous pantsuits or posturing to look "as tough as a man." Sarah says put on your lipstick and take on the world!

Old Girl Network: "Women have been trained to speak softly and carry a lipstick. Those days are over."

— Attributed to radical feminist Bella Abzug sometime in the late 1960s or early 70s.

New Girl Network:  "You know they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull — lipstick."

— Sarah Palin in her VP acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention September 3, 2008.

We're reminded of an earlier VP candidate's feistiness back in November of 2004:

"As we say in Wyoming, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," quipped Vice President Dick Cheney in a stump speech yesterday, with reference to John Kerry's claims he would be a credible war president. It's part of the VP's daily refresher course in the presidential wannabe's all-talk-no-action lack of decisiveness [the Girlie-Man Syndrome]. Kerry makes it all too easy.

All talk and no action. That sounds familiar. We loved Lucianne's one-liner re Obama's thin skin at the audacity of his opponents' witty criticisms about his work as a "community organizer":

Riled? Riled? Ooo scary. We always said he fought like a girl. Now the playing field is even.

If you can't take the heat, Mr. Harvard-educated lawyer, stay out of the kitchen!

Update: Ed Morrissey pokes fun at the gasbag who fights like a girl:

With both Rasmussen and Gallup showing Barack Obama moving backwards even before the Republican Convention dropped its balloons on Andrea Mitchell, one can excuse the Democratic nominee for hearing footsteps.  How desperate has he gotten? Looks like he’s playing the race card once again.

Re Andrea Mitchell, we happened to catch the moment the other night when — even as her fellow MSNBC talking heads back in the studio were laughing uncontrollably — the old girl ineffectually batted at a sea of red, white and blue balloons crowding the space between her and her cameraman. Her straight-faced, humorless attempts to keep on broadcasting as if it were business as usual seemed a perfect metaphor for Old Girl Media caught in the glare of the oncoming New Girl Headlights.

Update II: "I thought you’re supposed to dance with the girl, uh, old geezer with hairplugs, whatever, that brought you," writes silver-tongued Jules Crittenden, citing the NYT:

The names at the top of the ballot on Nov. 4 will be McCain and Obama, but the juicier battle this fall for an important group of swing voters — white working women with children — may be fought between the other two stars of the Republican and Democratic conventions, Sarah Palin and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

White working women with children? Hillary who?

Update III: All Palin all the time at Dr. Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities.

We owe it all to Hillary

He loves and she loves. Presidential candidate John McCain embraces Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as he introduces his running mate to the nation midday.

"Wow, an incredible pick! I am so excited, I am going to donate time, money and enthusiasm to the Republican ticket this fall. And I say this as a registered Democrat," writes Ramona in the comments to our previous post. Lots of good comments by old friends and new readers following the link from Instapundit, who has this to say about the effect McCain's surprise move is having on the distaff side of his own household:

The Insta-Wife is ecstatic, which may bode well for that demographic. [Update: Dr. Helen's "Thoughts on Sarah Palin"]

If the demographic fits, wear it! And we owe it all to Senator Hillary. Unintended consequences and all that. Had the former First Lady not reached for the stars and fallen to earth, the P.U.M.A.s — Party Unity My A** — and other Democratic and Independent women who "feel that Dean, Obama and the media gave Hillary (and women) a raw deal in this election" wouldn't be looking for something beyond the Democrats' offerings this year. The P.U.M.A.s explain:

Love it or hate it, P.U.M.A.s are “The Demographic” that will deliver this election to the eventual winner.

John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate to primarily appeal to the P.U.M.A voters out there …

Now, Palin IS NOT Hillary Clinton, and can never be Hillary Clinton, but this is a good sign of faith on McCain’s part that a sweetie’s (to use Obamaspeak) place is not merely in the kitchen.

Our man John's decision to choose a woman — and such a woman! — to run with him all the way to the White House is being celebrated by the first woman to run for national office on a major party ticket as Walter Mondale's running mate way back in 1984, Geraldine Ferraro, now a Fox analyst. In her remarks, Palin praises both Ferraro and Miss Hillary for having put all those cracks in the glass ceiling.

"She has the grit, integrity, good sense and fierce devotion to the common good that is exactly what we need in Washington today," McCain said of his running mate, who returned the compliment, saying McCain is the kind of man she wants commanding the nation's armed forces, Her son, who joined the Army on September 11 last year, will deploy to Iraq in September.

"I could only choose one," said a beaming McCain, extolling the virtues of "Sarah Barracuda":

… and I have found the right partner who can stand up with me against those … who would put power over principle and put their interests before your needs … Someone with executive experience who has tenacity and toughness and skill … with strong principles, a fighting spirit and deep compassion …who has been a union member and is married to a union member … I am especially proud to say in the week that we celebrate the anniversary of women''s suffrage, a devoted wife and a mother of five … [She] is exactly what we need in Washington DC today. She stands up for what's right, and she doesn't let anyone tell her to sit down.

"I've been hoping he'd pick Palin for weeks," writes Meryl Yourish in the comments:

I watched John McCain come out in front of the cameras in Ohio, and I thought, "Wow, Sarah Palin has managed to make me feel excited about this boring old man."

I mean, I was going to vote for him anyway, but now, I'm going to VOTE! for him.

We felt it too, a certain frisson at the thought of it all that we hadn't seen coming. Or maybe it was the Instalanche. Either way, Thank you, Hillary.

Update: More good stuff at Meryl's blog:

American history changed today every bit as much as it changed with Obama’s nomination — but this one means more to me, for obvious reasons.

We know what she means, and as we mentioned above, our own reaction caught us slightly off guard. Meryl continues:

It tells me that politics are forever changed in America, and love her or hate her, you have Hillary Clinton to thank for the choice of Sarah Palin.

Didn't we just say?

Update: We owe our tenuous grip on mental health to Dr. Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities.