Why Sarah Palin is Popular With Women

Ever wonder why Governor Sarah Palin is so fantastically popular--not just with Republican men, but with women?

From Daniel Henninger's WSJ column:

I asked a number of women this week to account for Sarah Palin's sudden appeal. Here are the common threads.

The angry woman-as-victim drives them nuts. They hate victimology. As one woman said, "The point is that across the ages women have been doing pretty much what Sarah Palin has been doing: bearing children, feeding families, bringing in an income, working to improve their communities."

Another woman said, "Her story reflects a more normal reality" of active women; "the harder you work, the luckier you get." Hillary Clinton still plays the victim card. Sarah Palin gives off no victim vibes. These women mentioned her grit, determination and character.

He hit the nail on the head.

I can't speak for other men, but I've never had a problem with women in positions of secular leadership. While I've been called "sexist" and a "misogynist" (by both feminists and girlie-men), I've long thought highly of female leaders like Elizabeth Kraus Munro, Elli Schwiesow, Leslee Unruh, Carole Hillard, Phyllis Schlafly, Benazir Bhutto and especially the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

In fact, if Margaret Thatcher had run for president here in the U.S.--and been eligible, as someone foreign-born--I'd have been one of her most ardent supporters.

Many have questioned why women have had such a hard time achieving acceptance on the national front in the United States. I've long contended that it isn't because America is sexist or can't stand the idea of a female leader, but because so many of the prominent females in American politics who personify (or try to claim they personify) female leadership are such angry, ultra-liberal, venomous caricatures of what strong women really are (a more plain description sounds a little like "gut buster" but is too vulgar to articulate here).

Sarah Palin, however, is the kind of strong woman Americans--both men and women--can enthusiastically support. She is powerful, articulate, positive, warm, charming, graceful, attractive, committed, passionate, and determined. And she displays these attributes in a way that isn't threatening to men or to women who hold America's traditional values in high regard.

In short, she is strength and values in a graceful package.

Most folks, outside the sphere of liberal whiners and those in search of perpetual victimhood, don't like people who constantly bash the things which have made America a great nation, whine about how somebody's keeping them down or who is always screeching about everything is so unfair. You know, someone in the model of Hillary Clinton or other feminists.

I think a wide new vista just opened up for women in America. And I'm happy to see that for many reasons.

One of which is that I have a smart, spunky 10-year old daughter. Depending on what she and the Lord have in mind for her life, I had hopes that she might someday be the first female President of the United States.

After seeing Sarah Palin in action, I find I don't mind too much the idea of my daughter being the second female President of the United States.