Shout out loud

So I wrote this editorial column for this week, but then Gov. Palin had to go "out" her pregnant daughter and I had to scrap it. But I'd hate for it to go to waste, so here it is. Do enjoy please.

Hear that noise?

That’s the sound of a glass ceiling shattering at America’s feet.

Like watching Hurricane Gustav pummel the Gulf Coast, we all knew this was coming.

Hillary Clinton all but obliterated the centuries-old glass barrier in her bid for the Democratic nod for the presidency, setting the stage nicely for the next lady worthy of the challenge.

But when John McCain announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate last week, I didn’t do a happy dance or cheer with my girlfriends.

I cringed.

My first instinctive reaction was suspicion—of course McCain would pick a woman merely to even up the odds of his being elected. Did he really believe Palin was the right person to stand just one heart beat away from the presidency?

Then a pang of giddiness mixed with disbelief hit me.

I support a Barack Obama, but the woman in me stubbornly wanted to cheer for Palin, and I was eager to learn more about this woman of whom I knew pretty much nothing.

Like millions of Americans, I pickede up quickly on mention that Palin was a former beauty queen turned mother of five and an avid fisherwoman, but I was annoyed to hear political analysts all but clap McCain on the back for making such a brilliant strategic move.

Perhaps, they speculated, the 18 million voters Clinton claimed at the end of her campaign would flock toward the next set of double X chromosomes to take the podium. That, they said, could be detrimental to Obama’s campaign, with women usually making up the majority of voters in presidential elections.

I considered throwing the remote control at Wolf Blitzer’s face.

I didn’t want anyone assuming what my decisions would be for me. So I did some research on my own about Palin.

It took only 15 minutes on Google to realize without a doubt that any true Hillary supporter wouldn’t stomach the idea of letting Palin within a 100 miles of the Oval office.

It’s like comparing apples to oranges, paper to plastic, soccer moms to CEO’s.

Let me break it down for you:

Last week, Plain told newsmax.com—speaking with near Bush levels of eloquence—

that global warming was not something she “would attribute…to being man-made.”

She is firmly pro-life, opposes same sex marriages and is all for capital punishment.

Clinton, on the other hand, has been long committed to upholding Roe V. Wade. She won the backing of much of the LGBT community by speaking out in support of their civil rights.

Palin has been governing a state of 700,000 citizens for under three years. Clinton has represented 19 million New Yorkers for eight years in the Senate.

You get the picture.

With their differences so blatantly obvious, I’d be disappointed if women rallied around Palin just for the sake of supporting a woman.

We don’t have to throw away our personal ideologies whenever one of our own gets a shot at the big time.

That was the whole point of women’s suffrage, after all—that we as women have the right to vote based on our own beliefs.

Palin and Clinton have spent their careers fighting against the limitations of their gender in what used to be a “Man’s world”.

So for me or any other woman to rally behind them because they are females goes against everything I believe their success stands for.

I respect Palin for what she’s achieved, but I won’t let an invisible bond of sisterhood tug me in a direction I don’t believe in.