Sarah Palin: not a proper lady candidate but good 'nuff

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Meet Sarah Palin, the newest resident of "Tooville."

Large portions of the American populace, laboring under the misguided belief that political candidates must be perfect images of themselves, are up in arms about Sarah Palin.

She’s too inexperienced, she’s too brash, she’s too "common," she’s too blood thirsty, she’s too politically conservative, she’s too religious, she’s too young. And yes, she’s just too – if you’ll pardon the expression – too darn pretty.

She’s got too many kids to pay enough attention to an American vice-presidency and too much testosterone filling up those sublime spiked heels to keep her itchy trigger finger off our new-kyu-lar arsenal if something terrible happened and John McCain spontaneously dropped dead.

Luckily Sarah’s not alone; other Toos down in Tooville are John McCain who too old and too stiff and Barack Obama who’s too dark and also too inexperienced, and Joe Biden who’s too likely to say something really, really stupid despite being an accomplished public servant.

But Palin has something none of the other residents of Tooville have: too much balls. This has turned some people off (the understatement of the year).

For some it’s just too jarring to see a woman run toward opportunity knocking at the door with such a lack of fear. Too dissonant to accept that such a beautiful young woman could actually enjoy killing small animals, too bizarre (in some circles) to see such a stylish contemporary woman be so upfront about her "right to life views."

For some she’s too much of a man and not enough of the "right kind" of woman, as if there could ever be such a thing. One person told me: "She’s just not a proper lady." Wow, what the hell does that mean?

For the record, I pretty much dislike everything that comes out of Palin’s mouth, from the folksy colloquialisms to the "Fargo-"esque twang they’re wrapped in, to the wholesale denouncement of the hardworking people who toil with their neighbors to make a difference in their corners of the world (otherwise known as the dreaded "community organizers").

And though I have zero tolerance for the catty, obsessive discussions about her hair, glasses, and shoes I’m subjected to at every turn (we really do live in the most shallow society on earth, god bless us) I accept that all that jibber jabber is just part of being in the public spotlight.

Here’s the thing: despite all the things we don’t have in common, I like what Sarah Palin stands for. Not the politics, not the party, not the stands on the issues, not her ideology or anything of real substance, to be honest, but what she actually stands for: opportunity.

Sarah Palin is not "Yes We Can" like Barack Obama is – he strikes me as the champion of the rights of "the people."

Sarah Palin is more about herself. She’s exudes a "Yes I Can," that comes across to me personally as: "Yes, I, Esther J. Cepeda can."

Yes I can have my family, get myself on the school board, become the mayor of my small town, get elected to state governor, then get tapped on the shoulder at age 44 to represent American women in the one-breath-away-from-the-Presidency spot in the most exciting presidential campaign of my life – and look smokin’ hot doin’ it.

Is Sarah Palin the most experienced, most knowledgeable or wisest female candidate McCain could have dug up? No, but I have to thank him for not picking a blonde – angel hair would have totally made this achievement fantasy out of the question.

The bottom line is that I love seeing Sarah Palin’s cute-hot face on the front page of every American newspaper. Poof! – just like that – a young woman is playing in the big-leagues at the big game – and kicking ass.

And if she can do it, I sure as hell can!

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Comments

[Rick Biesada]

Know what I like about you Esther?
You call em like you see em.

Mike seems to be out of touch with reality.

Foreign policy? Our current foreign policy experts just bankrupted our country. What America needs is Leadership, a quality which seems foreign to Barack Obama.

Rick

[Mike Rodriguez]

Esther, you're missing the point. The greatest question is whether or not Sarah Palin should be our Vice President, period... Do we want someone who considers foreign policy looking out of thier window; Someone who might believe dinosaurs exsisted several thousand years ago; Someone who doesn't believe that global warming has at least 'some' human qualities? And that's a resounding no!

[George]

And we'd all be better off you you were in the running. You're more in touch with reality than she (Palin) could ever hope to be.