Palin stirs voters and Democrat fears

Times:

She has variously described them as “mama grizzlies”, “pink elephants” and “moms who are rising up”.

Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and scourge of wimpish Democrats, is recruiting an eye-catching new breed of powerful female political candidates in an attempt to reshape American politics.

In a series of combative speeches and statements this month, Palin has startled her admirers and critics alike with a new emphasis on what she has described as “an emerging, conservative, feminist identity”.

While her every move is scrutinised for signs of a bid for the White House, Palin has thrown her formidable political weight behind high-profile women candidates who form what she calls a “pro-women sisterhood”, intervening in mid-term election campaigns to support“commonsense conservative women” who are “coming together to take this country back”.

Talking to an anti-abortion group last weekend, Palin said: “You don’t want to mess with the moms who are rising up ... if you thought pit bulls were tough, you don’t want to mess with mama grizzlies.”

Palin’s emphasis on “conservative feminism” has sent shockwaves through liberal ranks, and provoked howls of protest that her anti-abortion views are incompatible with any orthodox definition of feminism. “You simply can’t be a feminist if you don’t support a woman’s individual rights,” complained Taylor Marsh, a well-known Washington analyst.

Yet Palin has also upset her own conservative supporters as she attempts to straddle a growing divide between the mainstream Republican and right-wing Tea Party rebels who are playing havoc with conventional election campaigns.

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The Tea Party voters are mainly about spending and taxes and not social issues. When Palin is talking to crowds about abortion she is not talking at Tea Party events. The article also mistakenly claims the Murtha district had a GOP majority, when in fact Democrats out number Republicans two to one in the district.