Palin--A Good Friend to Feminists

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For years, women's issues have been suffering complacency and lukewarm responses from the media and mainstream culture in general.  Childcare, reproductive justice, fair pay and countless other issues have not rallied the forces or the show of hands needed to secure true equality for the "fairer sex". Suddenly the GOP, hardly the womb known to birth feminist activists, brings us Gov. Palin. In less than 48 hours, she has single-handedly reinvigorated dormant feminists.  Just maybe not in the way the McCain campaign had hoped.Across the media, there are accounts and react quotes from women who were, before the Palin announcement, uninspired by either candidate. There don't seem to be many fence-sitters anymore. Not researching Palin wasn't the only vetting oversight. When the McCain camp decided to attract Hillary voters with a "vagina-American" candidate, a term coined by Jon Stewart's Samantha Bee, they didn't do basic demographic research.  A good number of the Hillary supporters are pro-choice baby boomer women--the women who fought to give us Roe v Wade.  Even superficial number crunching would have shown that these voters would not be swayed by a "vagina-American" who claims her daughter's reproductive choice is a family matter, yet is willing to impose her creationist beliefs on the uteri of our daughters. Women who don't consider themselves feminists are insulted by McCain's obvious pandering.  With a host of other VP options who aren't being plagued by Troopergate, Abramoff-ties, pork barrel spending, earmarks, and bridges to nowhere, Palin is a pathetic choice for Republicans, but a fantastic choice for feminists.Gov. Palin has made women of all walks of life and political leanings perk up.  Formerly apathetic women are shaking their heads in disbelief and will blow the whistle on the McCain farce in November.  HBO couldn't have written a better script with such nuanced plot twists and turns.As a feminist, I think Palin is the best thing that has happened to us in a long time.