The Virgin Hockey Mom

There seems to be an awful lot of firsts happening in Sara Palin's life. While she may be no stranger to PTO bake sale sells. She now is attempting to sell herself to the foreign leaders of the world, as she was introduced to them for the first Wednesday at the United Nations in New York. It seems as though Palin has just turned 16 and had her coming-out party, along with her first intelligence briefing on Tuesday, which sounds to me a lot like parents laying the ground rules out to a child who they are entrusting with the slightest bit of freedom for the first time.

The Republican-American published an AP article highlighting this first-time experience for Palin. Now, this article was written in a rather positive light. Okay, I am not angry at that. But, all of these de-virginizing activities have me a little worried when I think about a woman who just received a passport for the first-time in her life last year. What does she really know about policies over sees, when she clearly is baffled by some at home? What does she know about foreign cultures and how they vary from those at home?

Now it seems that that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had a pleasant statement to make about the Vice Presidential nominee. "I found her quite a capable woman," Karzai said. Now let’s really think about this. What does that statement really mean? Capable woman? What does that mean coming from the President of country that does not even allow females to attend schools or in most cases the opportunities to work, according to the United States Department of State? Does it mean that she is capable to perform the most basic functions of womanhood? We already know that - she has five kids to prove it. Now, I am not calling the man misogynist. But come on, what else does he have to say? Why did he not choose his diction more carefully? Does it matter that he said woman and not politician or vice president or even leader for that matter?

I do give Palin some credit. She is bringing herself up to speed on many things and in a rather shortened time of period. The Associated Press even used the term "crash course," to describe the pace of the information that has come her way. But, my question is when does she take the final exam? At 3am one morning, when the red phone is blaring?