PALIN MANIA

- -We live now in post-feminist America, and this article by Anne Applebaum explains how and why Hillary Clinton's reign as the archetypal Female American Politician has come to an end.

-- Jessica Gavora  builds an article around Palin's quote: All I ever really needed to know I learned on the basketball court.  It's a good article.  The ending paragraphs:

But liberal feminists are, in fact, afraid of Sarah Palin. For the first time, they face real competition in their claim to speak for women. For decades, feminist groups have insisted they are the voice of American women, when in fact they are the voice of a narrow, liberal fringe. It's an argument that has convinced the media and has cowed politicians of both parties. And it's an argument that Sarah Palin is busy blowing clean out of the water.

If she wins, that hissing sound you will hear will be the air wheezing out of modern feminism. And even if she doesn't win, she will have given America--and, more important, American politicians--the example of a female former athlete who knows who she is and what she wants and doesn't need Big Brother to protect her from the old boys network.

And to think it all began in a gym in Wasilla.

-- The International Herald Tribune posts an article "Bible is Palin's professional guide, friends and pastors say"  (9/7/08)

-- The Int'l Herald Tribune post another article, this time on how Palin fuses politics and motherhood.  Quite fascinating article.  (9/8/08)   (HT: Drudge)

-- Jeffrey Bell explains "Why They Hate Her" in more historical and sociological detail than my previous post on the same subject.  (HT: Ed Morissey)

The simple fact of her being a pro-life married mother of five with a thriving political career was–before anything else about her was known–enough for the left and its outliers to target her for destruction. She could not be allowed to contradict symbolically one of the central narratives of the left. How galling it will be to Sarah Palin’s many new enemies if she survives this assault and prevails. If she does, her success may be an important moment in the struggle to shape not just America’s politics but its culture.”