BW Blog - First Female Athlete in the White House?

Govenor Palin running

Governor Sarah Palin could possibly be the first female athlete to serve as President or Vice President of the United States, but she may be in danger from the same forces of sexism that ruined Hillary Clinton's chances in the Democratic primaries.

September 3, 2008

Ever since John McCain announced that Governor Sarah Palin would be his pick to run as Vice President on the Republican ticket last Friday, the news stories have been abundant from an eager press corps that hates being one-upped by surprises.

The resulting overall picture has been half fairy tale, and half episode of SoapNet's "MVP."

Among other things, we have learned that Palin has a reputation for knocking heads in the Alaska State Legislature while pushing through political reforms.  As she has worked her way up from the Wasilla City Council to the governor's mansion in Juneau, she has challenged heavy spending and fought to reduce taxes.  She took on the big oil companies and even got them to send sizeable profit sharing checks to the residents of the state. 

Sarah's 17-year old daughter is pregnant and will marry her high school sweetheart, a hockey star named Levi who calls himself an "f-in redneck" on his myspace page and was once arrested for fishing illegally for salmon at a place called Moose Lake.  Now that's a cool crime.  Sarah's husband is a blue-collar North Slope oil worker who won the 2007 Iron Dog, a 1,900-mile snowmobile race.  He is part Yup'ik Eskimo.  Sarah and her husband are both proud union members.  This is a uniquely American story.  Or kind-of a Canadian one too.  Literally, you can't make this stuff up.  

But since the vast majority of Americans couldn't care less whether someone is called a Democrat or a Republican, they just see the idiocy and inaction in Washington and give Congress a 15% approval rating, we want to celebrate a little recognized potential breakthrough that may send the first post-title nine female athlete into the White House!  Sarah Heath-Palin has behind her the fortitude and resolve created by her experience with hard core competitive sports.  She is an athlete.  We are strong believers in female sports and the benefits that they send throughout society, and we have to believe that sports had a very important role in making Sarah strong and preparing her to lead.

At Wasilla High School, Sarah Palin was captain of the basketball team in 1982 when it won the state small-school championship. Her tough play -- once on a stress-fractured ankle -- earned her the nickname Sarah Barracuda.  For fun, Palin hunts, ice-fishes and rides snowmobiles.

Palin is an avid runner.  She was running 7 to 10 miles almost every day but switched to aerobics classes at her gym when she last became pregnant (her fifth child was born in April).  Now she has worked her way back up to running three miles every other day.

In the summer, when it's always light, she'll sometimes run as late as midnight. In the dead of winter, when it's dark, she sneaks in an afternoon run, or else grudgingly runs on the treadmill at home or at the gym in the evening.  Governor Palin keeps dumbbells at home, but she says most of her upper body strength comes from snowmobiling with her family. "It's the best upper body workout you could ever have," she says. "You're maneuvering through hundreds of pounds of powder." 

There are lines of attack in politics that are fair game, but one that we heard most frequently today rubbed us the wrong way.  You see, along with all her accomplishments, the Palins have five children including a newborn.  As a result, some have questioned whether or not Sarah will be able to focus on being Vice President and a mom at the same time.

The question always comes from a female member of the media, as if having a female ask the question suddenly makes it okay.  Or a surrogate of the Obama campaign suggests it so the main affiliates can keep their hands clean.  But we know better.  We represent sports - female bodybuilding, fitness and figure - that demonstrate on a daily basis how women and athletes can balance everything in their lives with phenomenal results.  Careers, families, diets, training, and showing up looking beautiful and ripped on stage - it can be done by people with the discipline and commitment to excellence to make it happen. 

And the bottom line is that you can be certain that nobody would be asking these questions if the Vice Presidential candidate were male. 

Former Hewlett Packard business executive Carly Fiorina, pointed to a number of statements from Obama and Biden, noting that "American women are more highly tuned than ever to recognize and decry sexism in all its forms."

The brutal treatment and disrespect that Hillary Clinton received at the hands of the Obama campaign and many members of the media during the Democratic primary is still fresh in the minds of many.  We know a lot of people who rallied behind Hillary in the primaries, some who agree with her policy positions and some who disagree, but all who were very disturbed at both the blatant and closet sexism.  By the time Saturday Night Live and others called the media out for their actions, forcing them to become even-handed in the primary race, it was too late.  Clinton rallied and won a majority of the contests at the end but could not overcome the deficit that the overt sexism of the media and the closeted sexism of the Obama campaign had created.

Now there is an opportunity to right that wrong and possibly see the first female athlete in the White House.  The media must not be allowed to perform the same hatchet job twice.  Don't stand by and let them do the same thing to Sarah that they did to Hillary.  Stand firm.  Sisterhood unite.