Gov. Palin Has Been Underestimated Because Of Sexism

When you see women as equal to men you do not underestimate them. Constance Walker wrote an excellent Op-Ed to The Keene Sentinel that describes an example of sexist people underestimating a woman. She wrote about how people's sexism blocks them from seeing the greatness of Sarah Palin: http://sentinelsource.com/articles/2008/11/01/opinion/letters_editor/free/id_329527.txt

Many times I've heard people say Gov. Palin is not qualified to be VP. I've heard this complaint more often by men. When a person sees a woman who is an excellent governor and thinks she is not even worthy of being VP then that indicates they are sexist. I dare anyone to mention any male candidate this election season that can match these abilities:

Intelligent-read newspapers in grade school (every article) Which of the male candidates read high school level topics at age 10? Remember, this has nothing to do with school learning where children are motivated to get high grades to please their parents or where adults are motivated to complete their coursework in college to get a high paying job. This is the joy of learning for the sake of learning shown at an early age (biography: Sarah, page 21).

Ethical-gave up a $115,000 job as Oil and Gas Commissioner rather than be part of a network of corruption. She had to give up her job in order to seek justice for the people. Which of the male candidates did anything like that?

8 Years Political Executive Experience-started from grassroots as PTA mom, then councilor (6 years), mayor (6 years), and now governor. Palin has many years experience planning, implementing, and maintaining tax policy, social services, capital projects, economic growth, etc. Which of the male candidates has been a political executive?

Balanced a state budget-Palin prudently limited spending while focusing on energy and education to help the economy (http://journaloffeministinsight.blogspot.com/2008/10/gov-palin-knows-how-to-balance-us.html).

Palin has negotiated an arrangement whereby Alaska natural gas will be piped across the Canadian border and into the United States. The gas pipeline project will bring new supplies and lower prices to the contiguous 48 states. The Senate voted 14-5 to approve a natural gas pipeline deal with TransCanada Corp., joining with an earlier 24-16 approval by the House. The pipeline would be the largest construction project in the history of the United States. Is there a single male candidate who knows as much about energy and has as much experience/success implementing energy policy?

Approval ratings have often topped 80%-Which of the male candidates has been able to connect with and meet the approval of the general public (Democrat, Republican, Green, etc.) to such an extent that they have achieved an 80% approval rating frequently?

It's sexist to require women to achieve 1,000 times more than men to even begin being seen as equal. A woman should not have to achieve much more than a man to be viewed as equal to him. In my opinion sexism is the worst social problem in the world. I look forward to the day when women and girls achieve equality.