"The party has moved from taking the female vote for granted to outright contempt for women."

Its just usually the mother is more in the right frame of mind to nurse a baby, a baby is more likely to get the right vibes from a mother, and the mother more likely to have an easier time with the job.

What an incredibly sexist remark. You know this how? Even, assuming solely for the sake of discussion and taking your first remark NOT to mean "physically able to breastfeed," that such is "usually" the case, on what evidence and authority do you care to assign that reading to any particular family situation? Are you further alleging that babies get the WRONG vibes from their fathers? That fathers are unfit to be primary caregivers because mothers are "more likely to have an easier time with the job"?

"...and the dad MIGHT turn out to be perfectly capable..." Implying that most are not suited and not capable, that it's a risky crap shoot to trust a man, ANY man, with caregiving duties. Thank you! As a man and a father, I take that personally both ways as a direct insult. Pistols at dawn, suh! ;-)

Point being, in a Sarah Palin (or a Hillary Clinton) we have direct evidence that true gender equality in modern society is quite attainable, that save for a few irreducibles, gender roles are now more a matter of choice than of biology. Now the "progressives" who have spent endless time pushing that "gender eqaulity" meme are suddenly shocked--shocked!--that someone who has attained it isn't one of them.

I think it's ****ing hilarious. And the harder they push that exclusive-club line, the more voters in the middle they will lose from the innate and obvious hypocrisy of it. Especially working-class voters with children. The "progressive" left has constructed a straw-man stereotype not just of conservatives but of anyone who is not one of them, and are now incensed that anyone who is not one of them could actually live up to any of the ideals they themselves have constructed. And yes, that shows not only incredible contempt for women in general, but also for men. Broken down to its basics, it shows mindless emotive contempt for anyone who is not one of them who accomplishes absolutely anything.

How dare the Palin family not live up to someone else's stereotypes! :-D

My dad has been my primary caregiver since I was three years old. (For those who are unaware, I'm a woman.) I think he did an excellent job, albeit in a very, very tough situation (raising two young daughters after a divorce).

Guess I must have gotten the "wrong vibe" from him, though, and I would be a better, more functional human if I had been nursed or raised by my mother, but life worked out for me anyway.

I'm glad that I had a very involved dad. He arranged his work schedule (as a salesman) so he could attend every single one of my sporting events (I think he missed exactly one of my track meets - states, sadly - which gives him about a 99% attendance record), my science team competitions, and mock trial competitions, in addition to coaching basketball and softball when I was a kid. Few other parents did that - even the ones who stayed at home. (Sure, he sometimes does the hands-off parenting thing, such as when I asked him if he would visit me in Virginia at law school, and his response was, "Sure. When's graduation?", but it all works out.)

Apparently, though, that's just not enough, because he wasn't a girl.