Can a MOMMY be the Next PRESIDENT?

Can a Mommy be in the WHITE HOUSE as PRESIDENT?

I just can’t hold my tongue any longer. I watched Oprah’s dismissive interview with Sarah Palin, where Oprah looked about as excited to be with Sarah as she would opening wide for a root canal.  It was disgusting. I wanted to see some ‘high fives’ (because Oprah has an obsessive compulsive trait when it comes to them). Oprah divvies out high fives about as often as she blinks. But I didn’t see any when it came to Sarah. I also was waiting for a ‘you go girl’ or some other common phrase from Oprah’s vernacular.  I guess the very visible pain of the interview on Oprah’s part put her into a zombie like trance and numbing resembling a need and desire for more Novocain. The desire to be anesthetized silenced her “you go girls”.   I believe Oprah has shown more excitement discussing coffee enemas with Dr. Oz than with sitting with this possible 2012 Presidential Candidate.   Oprah’s ratings have slipped and I have to say her obvious disdain for Sarah can’t help her with her more conservative soccer mom viewers who are already tiring of discussions on reincarnation and food combining.

Anyhow, I just needed to get my frustration with Oprah out of the way with that first paragraph. My main reason for writing this post is not really about Oprah but about a question she asked. It is the question that too many people ask. It also is a question that I find ironic and hypocritical. Why would a woman like Oprah who considers herself a liberated woman approach this question with genuine concern?  They ask Sarah questions like“ So how are you going to handle being a mother and the President (or VP or Whatever)?”  Why do women who claim to agree with feminist theory hit a stalemate when it comes to having a mother in the Whitehouse? Oh excuse me I mean “CONSERVATIVE MOTHER.” I don’t believe the question was ever asked to Hillary.   Our current President has his mother in law staying in the White House to help with Malia and Sasha. Sarah mentioned that she had a huge support system. Obviously, she would have a larger support system once in the White House.  But why is it that the LIBERAL women and the mainstream media are the ones asking this question? If those of us who are considered conservative and pro life (like Sarah) are true to our stereotype we wouldn’t even be the ones with a legitimate potential female (and mother) Presidential Candidate at all. We have been told that we are rigid and anti woman.  But we are the party currently with this mavericky, rogue-ish, Mommy Presidential-ish possible candidate.   Sarah Palin has been able to Govern Alaska while taking care of 5 kids, governing through a pregnancy, and taking the punches from the hardest hitting media corp. in the world.  She obviously can multitask. And she is a very smart ‘cookie’ as well. Rush Limbaugh says her new book “GOING ROGUE” is one of the best policy books he has read in ages. But I guess to her ‘haters” it is her accent, lack of Versace clothing and her lack of interest in impressing the DC elite that most likely has our media pool perplexed.  They contradict themselves by professing that they hope she runs for President in 2012 because the democrats, dismissing her as a non-threat, will cream her. But in the same breath they go out of their way to have 11 employees from the Associated Press fact check her book.  (If they would ONLY offer the same scrutiny to Obama. Please fact check ANYTHING related to this Presidency). Why pull out the entire Calvary if you don’t even think you have a battle?

Here is the thing. Conservative wives and mothers, like myself are tired of being told we can be all things as long as we deny our children and husbands. We are tired of the old false rhetoric of the women’s movement of the 70’s.  Whether or not it is Sarah as the next conservative President or Michelle Bachman, the Liberal media and the politicians are going to have to wake up to the fact that there are many women who believe that we can be in government office and still love our husbands and bring life and nurturing to our children.  We are a new breed of women. While we have benefited from the works of the women of the tired movement of the 70’s in the sense that we have climbed the corporate and government ladders, we have also rejected the old fashioned movement that says we can be all things as long as we abort our babies, delay motherhood and live our lives without men or fathers for our children. We have been ignored and demeaned as ‘poor housewives and mothers” by our feminist ‘sisters’ while at the same time sharpening our reasoning skills, learning all about self sacrifice, learning how to handle disputes and balancing budgets. These are all traits that make for great leadership. Still I can hear some snickers and condescension as some read this. “Oh but running a household is nothing like running the government.” I would love to debate that. But consider this. A woman like Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachman have been running their household of multiple children while simultaneously being active in policy making, deal making while currently working IN GOVERNMENT at the same time. While most of their male counterparts have been able to kick their feet up during recess or golf…. a woman’s work is never completed…and she can do it with joy and poise. Sarah Palin is the perfect example of grace under pressure. I would love to watch Harry Reid, Tim Geithner and Rahm Emmanuel try to change a diaper, put a roast in the oven while simultaneously negotiating a pipeline through Alaska. Please let me get video of them trying to figure out the diaper genie while debating Joe Biden or fighting off a press pool that wants to know how much your suit cost.  

“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence”. ALBERT EINSTEIN

Can Sarah Palin mother her children and run the country? Yes, with the love and support of her family-including her husband.  In fact, I am wondering if there isn’t a lack of liberal female leaders capable of the role of President because they have isolated themselves away from being capable of doing exactly what Sarah IS capable of (having family support and a successful home life). Her supportive husband, opening the door to encouraging her aspirations in government, her children giving her a sense of fulfillment and true desire to make the world a better place for them, her ability to have faith and confidence in her own decisions that come from her trust in God, all of these things may be lacking in a liberal pro choice feminist who has always believed she can accomplish all things on her own but has fallen short due to her lack of finding true happiness.  I believe those women have lost themselves by attaching their souls to a rhetoric and philosophy that has dictated to them who they should be.  Sarah has found herself on her own through holding onto traditional beliefs while taking advantage of some of the more positive aspects of the women’s liberation movement, while other childless, manless liberal feminist women are still trying to figure out “what went wrong?”

Yes, it is ironic to me that the very stereotype that the women’s movement was trying to destroy are the group of women who have the grit, tenacity, heart, and abilities to reach places that have eluded them in the past.   And they have found their abilities through self sacrifice to their children and yes even to their husbands. Perhaps learning how to truly form a partnership that requires a little give and take to find victory and happiness for the whole family is something we need in our political figures.

Betty Friedan said this: “The only kind of work which permits an able woman to realize her abilities fully, to achieve identity in society in a life plan that can encompass marriage and motherhood, is the kind that was forbidden by the feminine mystique, the lifelong commitment to an art or science, to politics or profession.”   

Sarah is a mother and a politician.
I find it ironic that OPRAH is still spitting out the Novocain cream when she sits next to an example of a complete maternal feminist like Sarah Palin who has been able to handle motherhood and politics. Betty Freidan should be endorsing her.  

Bella Abuzug said this:
The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.  

Then why are all of the BELLA, BETTY and GLORIA STEINEM feminist offspring asking Sarah “HOW can you be a mother and a politician?”  Maybe it is because the skill has escaped them in their quest to destroy their children and emasculate their men. Perhaps they genuinely want to know HOW Sarah can parent and govern at the same time because they have not developed the ability themselves.

Yes…Sarah is MAVERICKY and ROGUEISH and not smooth and sophisticated but that is why we love her. Those of us who have proudly been juggling work and motherhood for years and doing it well wonder why the question even needs to be asked. But maybe it is because many of us were rogue-ish and mavericky when it came to the women’s movement. Some of us didn’t buy the line that we should aspire toward our career while simultaneously leaving our children and husbands on the sidelines. We took them along with us. And in doing that we were able to find completion, fulfillment, support and genuine joy. Maybe we discovered that we love and need our men and our drooling babies to keep us grounded and real.

“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences”. SUSAN B. ANTHONY

I say thank you to our early feminists like Susan B. Anthony who believed in loving our children and who disagreed with abortion. I thank the suffragists for allowing the vote. I also appreciate the hard work of our recent feminists in getting us the opportunities to aspire to virtually all kinds of careers. But it is time to let go of the old fashioned belief that only women with zero or one child is capable of anything other than memorizing recipes.  We have defied those who wanted us to ignore our attraction to the opposite sex. We have argued with women who tell us that we should abort our babies. We have given birth multiple times even to our disabled babies. We have then found our happiness in our children who will come with us whether it is to the super market, gym, office or even into the WHITEHOUSE.