Palin

Sarah Palin is an incredible woman. But the left has been so effective at marginalizing her that I'm afraid she's a lost cause.

Like Dan Quayle, she will forever be a caricature...a punchline.

The book was a gutsy move on her part, and resigning as governor was the right thing to do once she started down that path.

Part of her argument, and it is a valid one, is that the GOP did a make-over of Palin when one wasn't needed. Sarah appealed to us because she was a real person. So what did McCain do? He went about coaching her and dressing her and putting words in her mouth. In other words, the GOP turned her into a less-desirable product.

Left to her own mannerisms, she would be a perfectly delightful Senator. She would do her part by calling out "bass-ackwards" ideas when she saw them. And she'd be a breath of honesty at congressional hearings.

Her only hope for VP or the White House will be to draw large numbers of party conservatives. It will be a tough sell since the media is still stuck in the sideshows they created in 2008. And her positions have to be as clear as her manner of speaking.

So far, she hasn't done that. Take my favorite topic: Immigration. I couldn't tell you where she stands on that issue. Maybe her book will clear up the matter.

My point is this: There is a power vacuum in the GOP. Watered-down democrat positions from a decade ago will not fill that void. Nor will ambiguous answers. We need straight talk, and not just politicians who call themselves straight talkers.

Sarah's got to be blunt AND she's got to overcome the reputation the left saddled her with. That's almost too much to accomplish.

As for feminism, the left has shown their stripes. They want a homely woman who thinks like them. I'm not sure what they call Sarah Palin, but I'd go for "protected class" status if I were her.