Praise Palin for breaking glass ceiling

Sep 9 2008 By Karren Brady

JUST when Barack Obama thought he was rid of pesky women, out from the tundra pops Sarah Palin to give him another serious ear bashing.

You might not like her Alaskan brand of politics but Palin strikes me as a firebrand who is going to set her country jumping right up to November 4, the date of the election for President.

She’s feisty and smart. Don’t forget the smart bit either. I loved her comment that when Obama had finished parting the waters and saving the planet, he should get down to the nitty gritty. And that she wasn’t in politics to please the media but to serve her country.

Women moved to the forefront of this contest when Hillary Clinton battled across the continent for the right to become the first to stand for the supreme role. Clinton long ago had the rough edges knocked off her, though, and had little of the instant magnetism of the unpolished, unprivileged Palin.

Even so, she lost the Democrat ticket to Obama by only a small margin and, now, cleared the path for Republican candidate John McCain to choose Palin as his wild-card running mate.

Every woman should issue at least one cheer, just as every human being should welcome the fact that a black man has been accepted as a worthy candidate for the White House.

Last week the Commission for Equality reported that the number of women in top jobs in this country had stalled but Palin and Clinton are a reminder of just how much is being missed by the subjugation of our talents by male-dominated systems.

I’m no grumbling feminist about this. There are many reasons why the rise of women into boardrooms has been so stubbornly slow, not least because vast numbers of them put their families first.

The most impressive thing about Palin is that she has five children, the latest, a Down’s Syndrome sufferer, only five months ago, and still has found time to govern the state of Alaska.

Most men won’t have a clue what that means in terms of grindingly hard work, torn emotions and guilt about not being able to give up enough time, not just to the baby but to the other children. While there may be a few sniggers about her 17-year-old unmarried daughter’s pregnancy, Palin is not the type to apologise about that nor to let it interfere with the messages she sends to people who are turned off by slick machine politicians.

Yes, she has her faults. Already, I’ve seen cartoons of her dressed in a Stars And Stripes swimsuit, wearing glasses and toting a machine gun. But for every liberal European who fears her attitudes, there’s a redneck who’ll love them.

I think she’s great for the campaign. The fact that, as they say, she could be a heartbeat from the Presidency causes a flutter of concern. But she is carrying the flag for successful self-made women and we need them, badly.