If Sarah Palin were different

Would Sarah Palin be treated differently if:

-- she were a member of that exclusive club, the U.S. Senate, rather than a mere governor?

-- she were from New York, or New Jersey, or Florida?

-- she were a member of an "acceptable" minority religious group (such as Episcopalian, or United Methodist or Presbyterian) rather than a member of Wasilla Bible Church?

-- she were dumpy and dowdy?

-- she had a "respectable" 2 children?

-- those 2 children were, say, one a senior at Princeton, and one at Harvard Law?

-- her husband were an attorney?

-- her parents were, say, a former president, or a senator, rather than a school secretary and 4th grade teacher?

-- she enjoyed watching horse races, rather than hunting and fishing?

-- her husband were a yachtsman, rather than a snow racer?

-- we had no pictures of her firing a gun?

-- we had no pictures of her with a dead moose?

-- she were not a former Miss Alaska?

-- she didn't have big hair?

Don't kid yourselves, folks. Part of what's going on here is a class thing. Gov. Palin's not a member of the class that some think our presidents should be drawn from. (I think it's a compliment that she's not a member of that group).

She's getting some of the the same snide treatment Prime Minster Thatcher got. Thatcher was looked down on because she didn't come from the aristocracy that British Prime Ministers usually came from. Her father ran a grocery store. Thatcher herself was a chemist who worked her way up through the ranks. And the Tory establishment never forgave Thatcher's impertinence for thinking she could change Britain, and the world. She did. I hope Gov. Palin remembers that after Jan. 20th.