What is the difference between a Hockey Mom and the Vice- President of the United States?

I am not sure if there is a punch line here but I am sure it has something to do with lipstick.  Has anything taken our country more by surprise that the Republican nomination of Sarah Palin?  Admit it, had you even heard her name before last week?  And yet out of the background has stepped this gun toting, pro-life, beauty queen turned governor; hockey mom of five children: one of whom has special needs; one who is going to war in Iraq next week; and one who is expecting her first child at seventeen.  You can’t make this stuff up!

When John McCain announced his running mate, the media was off and running.  Fresh meat was being served and in this case, you might have thought that the press hadn’t been fed in a while.  In an election year, during hurricane season and a war, you would have thought that there would have been plenty of content about which the press could write.  Yet this still sophomore governor is taking the front page of most major newspapers and all the entertainment and gossip magazines, often times featured aiming a gun!  Immediately the media along with most of America began questioning her experience and credentials as the woman who would be a “heartbeat” from the presidency; one breath from being the leader of the most powerful country in the free world. 

As an American woman, I must admit that anytime a woman gets closer to penetrating the glass ceiling I am enthused (even if I don’t agree with her politics).  As a Mom, I have witnessed how women get things done in business, in PTOs, in communities and have often wondered how the world would run if there were more women in major government positions.  And as a Mom who is employed outside of the home I am disappointed that anyone would question Sarah Palin’s credentials based upon her “mother’” status.  Did anyone ever ask any of the previous presidents how they would be able to govern being Dads and all?  Do we have no faith in the “first dude” who manages to attend to his children’s needs and still race snowmobiles?  (Listen, this may not qualify him as Betty Ford or even Tipper Gore but every better half of the Vice Presidency needs to have their own identity) Do we not think that having a spouse who has agreed to take on the Mr. Mom role is good enough for her to carry out her obligations? 

There was the RNC, strewn with homemade signs: “Hockey Moms for Sarah”.  There was Sarah explaining the difference between Hockey Moms and Pitt Bulls:  Lipstick. She seemed tough enough to me. You?  We should be questioning her credentials and her experience.  We should be vetting her, maybe slightly more that the GOP did before they threw her into the bright lights of national politics, but we should (read: the media) be vetting her ability to lead, to inspire; to make tough choices; to balance budgets; to govern the United States of America.  We should understand her views and experience on foreign policy, economics, alternative fuels, education, poverty, healthcare and a host of other topics.  We should find out her stance on terrorism and human rights.  We need to understand her ability to make the most challenging and difficult decisions under the worst of conditions:  with the glare of the media shining in her face and the whole world watching. 

While I (personally) am delighted to see women rising to the opportunities that are before us, my criteria for choosing a candidate has nothing to do with their parental status, anymore that it would their race or gender.  I admire that she may be a good hockey mom.  I am impressed with her short but apparently very busy and productive governor-ship.  But I want to know a lot more about her before she becomes my “First-Lady-Vice-President”.