Hail to the Hockey Mom!

[Anita S. Lane]

A forty-four year-old self-proclaimed “hockey mom” as been selected as the Vice Presidential running mate for John McCain. Wow. No one saw that coming.

I, like most others, didn’t know much about Sarah Palin when McCain first announced her, but she seems like a decent woman. She seems, in many ways, like your typical American mom. Granted, she happens to be Governor of Alaska, but to many that’s considered small-time politics—given that Alaska has a population the size of Memphis, Tennessee.

From PTA to VP
Small or not, it appears Palin’s paid her dues—graduating from serving two terms on the Wasilla city council and two terms as Mayor of Wasilla (a town of 6,700) to ousting the incumbent Republican Governor in the primary, to become Governor herself. She’s eliminated wasteful government spending, fought corruption and butt heads with her own party establishment. Sarah “the barracuda” (as she’s called) is one tough woman.

At the same time, Palin is the wife of her high-school sweetheart and the mother of five children ranging from four months to nineteen old. Her oldest son is being deployed to Iraq and her youngest son has Down Syndrome. When she’s not making political havoc, she enjoys hunting, fishing and snowmobiling. Her husband—part Yupik (Eskimo)—is a commercial fisherman, oil field production supervisor and snowmobiling champion.

The Senator’s Big Surprise
Senator John McCain knew what he was doing when he selected Palin. He’s apparently very excited about his choice—and for good reason. Governor Sarah Palin exemplifies just about everything he could have hoped for in a VP choice. Palin is smart and tough. She has executive experience. She is a proven change agent and she’s willing to even stand up to her own party. Sarah Palin is pro-life. She comes from a hard-working, middle class background and is a lifetime NRA member. Best of all, McCain gets all these attributes embodied in a woman. Cha-ching! No wonder he’s so excited. A day after Senator Barack Obama makes history as the first African American presidential nominee of a major American party, McCain gets to make history of his own.

A New Day in Presidential Politics
Surely it’s a new day in American politics when the VP nominee is found scurrying to change her baby’s diaper between appearances, and lugging a breast pump onto McCain’s Straight Talk Express. By picking this mother and young family, McCain may be trying to show that he and the Republican party are open to new models for women—that there’s more to women’s issues than the “right to choose an abortion.”

McCain wants to prove that true equality is when a woman isn’t overlooked because she has a young family. McCain’s definitely going after the suburban “soccer/hockey mom” vote.

Should She?
However, there will be some who believe the VP role simply isn’t a role Governor Palin should be pursuing with a young family and a baby with special needs. But one thing I know is that everyone has a God-given purpose to fulfill, and where God guides, He provides. If this is where Sarah Palin is supposed to be, God has a way of making sure everyone’s needs are met.

Palin’s husband has agreed to become the “stay-at-home dad”—although in this instance he’ll be more of a “travel-along-dad”— and God will grant Palin His grace (ability) to do what she needs to do. I believe this simple principle applies to everyone engaging in their God-given purpose. The same applies for Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and their young family.

The question remains, however—will Palin ultimately prove to be the best VP pick? Only time will tell.

Change—Republican Style
But for millions of your everyday “hockey moms,” Sarah Palin is the face of change and progress for the Republican Party. Her presence on the ticket has already proven to energize the base—even bringing James Dobson aboard the McCain train.

Democrats, on the other hand, claim that selecting Palin doesn’t bring about any real change because her policies are the same. However, no one can deny that having a woman on the ticket is indeed change in and of itself. It’s never been done before in the Republican Party.

By picking Palin, McCain is attempting to say that Democrats don’t have a monopoly on change. Well, on November 4th, Americans will decide if McCain-Palin is the change they want. But for now, it’s “Hail to the Hockey Mom!”