With all due respect, I think there are intelligent women who would vote based solely on gender. Do I think that's wise? Nope. But I think there are those out there who have strong beliefs about the importance of equality and would view a woman in such a role as so important that some positions of ideology could take a back seat.

Her children are relevant. The experiences we have shape who we are. What we know about her is that she didn't allow her career to stop her childbearing, nor her childbearing to stop her career. What is relevant about the son with Downs? It's important because she is pro-life and lived out her convictions. Whether you agree with her stance on abortion, the bottom line is that she takes a position and has stood in the face of a decision that some would say is a reason abortion should be legal, and didn't even consider one.

If she had aborted her Downs baby, that would've said something about her as well.

I understand what you are saying about not caring what she wears. I don't care what she choses to wear, either, but my gut tells me that none of the candidates decide that in a vacuum. Such a big deal was made about HRC's pantsuits, and if this nominee is to be the Republican counterpart to that, it's interesting to ponder how closely they 'play' her feminine side. It's politics and it's image-making, and for whatever reason, the powers that be who make suggestions have their fingers on the pulse of *something* that told them it was okay to go more 'business feminine' with her. OR, she said, "Buzz off - I can dress myself!" I'd like to think she did that, and now that I've heard so much about her today, I suspect that's what happened. But had that been a decision encouraged by the RNC, I'd like to know what's going on in their collective minds about why that image was the right one to present during her national debut. Whether we like it or not, images impact impressions.

So you want to know what her qualifications are? From what I gather after barely being able to pry myself from the couch today, I can tell you a bit about this. Her biggest qualification is that she is an equal opportunity reformer. She could care less if you are a Democrat or a Republican - if you are corrupt, she'll make sure you are kicked out the door. In Alaska, it appears she was responsible for the downfall of three powerful Republicans, including the governor and the head of the state ethics committee in charge of oversight for the oil and gas industry. She was known as a whistleblower.

When she ran for mayor of her hometown she did so on the premise that spending was out of control and property taxes were insanely high. She slashed them by 60%.

Her parents were in elementary education and belonged to the teacher's union. She was a big athlete and hunter while she was growing up and married her high school sweetheart after graduating from college in Idaho with a degree in journalism and then working as a sportscaster for a brief time. Together they moved home to Alaska and started a commercial fishing business, which they ran together. So she has small business experience. At some point in there, she herself was a union member and her husband still is. An avid hunter, she is an NRA member.

The thing that strikes me about her is that she doesn't seem to have had aspirations for making it big on the national scene. There are some politicians whose more recent backgrounds appear as though they were grooming themselves for the job, and it's hard to figure out what the real "them" is because they've lived a life of politics and not the life of a regular person. That makes it difficult to distinguish what opinions they hold for political purposes and which ones they would live out if they were living the life of a 'normal person'. With this lady, most of her life was as a *normal person*. I find that rather fascinating.

Bottom line? It sounds like her strength is kicking butt when there is corruption and could care less if the corrupt person is in her own party or not. It's that personal attribute that will make her a strong candidate, IMHO.