History was made this week when John McCain and the Republican Party nominated Governor Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, to run for Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with Presidential candidate John McCain. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/politics/29palin.html?_...

Palin is only the second woman ever to be nominated by a major political party to run as Vice President on a national ticket.  The first time was in 1984 when former Vice President and then Presidential candidate Walter Mondale nominated Geraldine Ferraro to run as Vice President with him on the Democratic Party ticket.  It took us women twenty four years and the candidacy of Hillary Clinton to the Presidency to have a second woman nominated to the Vice Presidency.

It is only because Hillary ran and lost in the Democratic Party primary under what some of her supporters still believe was unfair treatment by both the national media and the new powerful within the Democratic Party that Sarah Palin got the second spot in the Republican ballot. Palin's nomination is an attempt by the Republican Party to appeal to the Hillary supporters that came out empty handed from the Democratic Party primary contest.

Growing up as a girl, reading New Moon magazine and at the same time having to memorize the names of all the past male Presidents of the United States, I dreamed of having a woman President in the White House.  Hillary Clinton almost made that dream come true, and although failing in achieving her own goal, the circumstances under which Hillary's run for the Presidency failed had an impact on a very important segment of the voters in a close election like this one, the middle aged white woman voter.  The Republican Party, with the nomination of Sarah Palin, is certainly making an invitation to that segment of the voters to support the Republican option. I am not sure if that segment of voters will go out and vote for Mccain/Palin as a punishment vote, but they may also opt for staying home.  

There are some obvious similarities among Hillary and Sarah Palin, both are female politicians and mothers.  But there are some marked differences, such as Hillary supporting women's right to choose and Palin opposing abortion except to save the life of the mother.  Hillary Clinton is a graduate of elite Ivy League Universities in the Northeast, http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/hc42.html while Sarah Palin went to several colleges in Idaho and Hawaii before graduating with a degree in Journalism from the University of Idaho. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin.  Regardless of the similarities and differences among them, i view Hillary and Sarah as both being representative of a principle that clearly states that under the current societal values of the United States, if you are a woman, how qualified you are for a political position will not determine your political opportunities or successes.  Rather your ultimate success will be determined by how much the powers that be can use you to keep in power the male dominant group that has controlled the two party system in the United States. Regretfully I must say that based on her performance last week, Hillary agrees with the wisdom of the principle stated above.