"Ode to Camille", should have been the tittle to this piece. It appears Camille has long ago mastered the art of verbal masturbation. Given what was offered in her piece I don't doubt that if it were 1808 Governor Palin would be more then qualified to be President of the United States. However it is not 1808 and we are not underestimating her intellect or qualifications. Wake up, Camille. You castigate ivory tower liberals without hesitation, yet you fail to realize that you have been their queen all along.

Why does my subscription money go to pay for this annoying troll?

Can't we just clone Greenwald instead and have two of him?

Since I actually work for a living and prefer to bury my head in a book instead of reading the opinions of others, (I'd rather glean through the info avaiable and form my own opinion), can some nice person explain to me what the hell is "a Freeper" thanks.

I googled it. Wow, can we add some more vitriol to this election?

I've never read CP column until today. And today I was pleased to find her voice on Salon.

Yes, I am definitely a liberal. No, I don't agree with everything CP says. But I value balance in an argument. I grow uncomfortable when too many people around me begin to "sound like my choir". Don't get me wrong. I don't want to be surrounded with raving conservatives! But I want to feel that I, and everyone around me, are thinking critically. Are constantly questioning our judgements.

We as liberals are now in a place, for the first time in 8 years, where we feel like we're "winning". But let's not become to feel like the cocky, repressive, smug party in power that the Repubs came to be under Cheny/Bush. I am so happy that the Obama camp APPEARS to be be ahead at this point. But let's continue to be critical of everyone, including ourselves. Growing comfortable in one's own righteousness is a sure pre-requisite to downfall. (And is a real sign of ignorance.)

I don't agree with everything CP says by FAR. (I'm horrified that she calls abortion murder.) But recently I've felt that Salon has been losing some of the (left-leaning yet) fair-mindedness that originally made me a loyal reader. CP gives me things to think about. Stops me from retreating into being a simple yes-(wo)man for other liberals. Liberals are a diverse group, but they're sounded strangely one-minded the last few weeks. I can't stand Sarah Palin as a candidate. But I can appreciate her toughness and the dynamics of her relationship with Todd. (An extremely conservative family with a stay-at-home dad? Love it! I can refuse her politically, but still give credit for breaking molds where credit is due. I don't have to hate *every single* thing about her.)

Thank you, Camille, for disagreeing with me sometimes.

The Palins: “Powerful new symbols of a revived contemporary feminism”

should read: "Powerful new symbols of a revived contemporary fascist demagoguery."

...she would SO be a Leni Reifenstahl-type figure.

Camille is an opportunist with about as much credibility as Hitchens now has, but far less success.

At least with David Horowitz, he didn't pretend he was something else but a vile water-carrier looking to his paycheck.

To truly understand Sarah Palin, rent this Elia Kazan classic this weekend.

Paglia even insults academia on the first page of this stupid column.

How can Paglia DO this? We all KNOW academia is ABOVE criticism.

She has a cohesive and complete worldview that does not fall into convenient little categories.

This is why she so completely offends the sensibilities of anyone who never bothers to actually think things through for themselves.

I'm totally at loss to understand why anyone views Sarah as a positive role model for women. Those who have stories about physically tough women surely are not advocating that they should have positions that require nuanced understanding of how the world works!! And those who "admire" Sarah's ability to hunt wolves and caribou from an airplane (where I come from people like that, who claim to be "hunters," are despised intensely) surely have no sense of decency. And people surely recognize someone who, lacking in ability, uses her personality and sex appeal to advance herself. Every office and academic department has someone like that and these climbers are not exactly someone you would want to leave in charge of your children for the evening.

Sarah has a history of being small, vindictive, and vicious. This is the stereotype that those who want to keep women "in their place" use to describe women, and to have someone who fits that stereotype so well on the national scene does women's advancement no good at all.

I'm not underestimating Sarah Palin's "smarts", Camille, because to do that she would have to demonstrate some first.

What would a bourgeois suburbanite like you know about 'street smarts' anyway: it's not like you made use of it to gain your Doctorate, because if you had, you'd never have qualified for kindergarten, let alone have been allowed into Yale (for someone who hates 'elites', Academics, and the cognoscenti, she sure wastes no time, though, waving her higher degree and rubbing it in). In fact praising 'street smarts' when you yourself have had the privilege of a higher education is like Marie Antoinette playing milk maid--and one of the ploys the Right wing use to keep the working class & poor from getting above themselves (Got to keep churning out those wage slaves and what better way to do so than to flatter them that they have 'street smarts' and persuade them they don't need an education. That's for upper class sissies (and how it plays to their prejudices and vanity; their poor, immigrant parents however know better and will box their ears to get their sons-at least-to study and make something of themselves and there's affluent, spoilt, privileged Paglia advising them that they don't have to. They're 'street smart' after all! code for not educated or well -read.)

And as for Vlad the Impalin being a new breed of feminist--in Nazi Germany perhaps! This nutter would happily force every woman to breed.

Besides, the Republicans aren't promoting her 'gender' (a woman as having as every right as a man to hold public office). That would be endorsing feminism and non-traditional female roles, when it's perfectly clear from their policies that they don't want to eliminate sexual injustice but want to re-install the male/female polarity. Indeed, what they are doing is exploiting her sexuality to promote a reactionary view of woman. That's why Palin being a mother of five is constantly emphasized--as if only someone who's a mother is a 'real' woman. Note how sexuality is tied to being fecund. This is the real reason why they oppose abortion and contraception--which is to say, a woman controlling her fertility.

As for her secretary or Librarian look--her hair done up in a bun and glasses--it's an old fashioned male fantasy; think back to Sharon Tate as Matt Helm's secretary --hair up and donning specs which downplay her looks--until she lets her hair down and removes her thick glasses to reveal a blonde bombshell. This is what Paglia hails as " a huge step forward in American sexual symbolism". I'm sure pornographers would be fascinated to hear that what men have been jacking off to is "powerful symbols of a revived contemporary feminism", Camille (and people think Palin is dumb). Misogyny is a "revived...feminism! What's been revived more likely is nostalgia for the patriarchy, which insecure men and women without a glamour career I'm sure find comforting even though they're being played for suckers.