Before anyone gets their panties in a wad, I just want to say upfront that I’m not officially un-endorsing Obama for President. This doesn’t mean that I won’t vote for him in November; I very well still could, but after watching the moving Convention speeches by McCain (who else cried their eyes out???) and Palin, I’ve just decided to hold out and wait until after all the debates to make my final decision. For the first time in my life, I cannot decide on a candidate. One second it’s Obama and the next it’s McCain. They’re both qualified candidates and I’m really struggling as to who I want more. It is too much to ask for a Obama/McCain/Palin ticket? Pretty please, with sugar on top? Before the Convention, I was for sure it was Obama, but now it’s quite a different story and if you were to make me decide right now who I’d vote for, I couldn’t honestly give you an answer. It’s quite the conundrum.

The reason for my change of heart? One word: Barracccuuuudddaaa! Man, it feels SO good to have a strong, intelligent, tough woman on the ticket! As I’ve stated before, I do not agree with her on abortion, same-sex marriage, and her alleged book bannings (have I mentioned how much I hate book bannings?!?), but she’s somehow managed to win me over. As I sat watching her speech the other night at the convention, my heart was filled with elation over the fact that a woman was standing up there at that podium. Not another man, but a woman…a mother…a wife…a go-getter…a ball-buster. Ladies, scrutinize her politics and question her on the issues (rightly) all you want, but at least admit that it feels damn good to have a woman up there. Forget that you’re a Democrat or a Conservative for a second and admit that this is a wonderful step for us. Solidarity ladies, we’ve GOT to have more of it if we ever want to get into the White House.

I have to admit, some of the things I’ve read and heard about Sarah Palin over the last week has really made me sick to my stomach. Attack her on the issues if you will, but do not attack her as a mother. Do people understand that when they start trashing hockey moms, working moms, and mothers of 17 year old unwed daughters that they are trashing a HUGE percentage of women in this country? If I were a working mother of five, I would be highly insulted at the insinuation that I couldn’t have it all…family and a career. If I were the mother of a 17 year old girl who was pregnant, I would be VERY insulted if someone told me that I was a bad mother. Does the MSM realize what they are doing? By attacking Palin as a mother, they are attacking ALL working mothers. What kind of message are they sending to all of us? That we have to choose between family and a career? Why can’t we have both? Millions of women in this country go to work every day and work their asses off and come home and raise their children. I know I do.

I’ve been working two jobs and managing my own photography business on the side for the past three years and my child isn’t lacking in any of my motherly affections. I’m there every morning to put him on the bus. I’m there every day when he comes home. I help him with his homework. I make sure he has a hot meal every night. I make the time to sit and talk with him, or read to him, or watch tv with him. As a FAMILY, we make the time every weekend to go do something together. I’m a soccer mom. I’m a PTA mom. I’m your average, everyday mom living in suburbia trying to make ends meet and take care of my family. And up until this past week, I never felt like I had to choose…that I could have it all, because really, isn’t that the American dream? But the outright disrespectful and vicious attacks on Palin from the media and bloggers regarding her status as a mother has me fired up and declaring “I’m a fucking pitbull with lipstick. You gotta problem with that, bitches?”

But I think the most pathetic display of sexism ironically hasn’t been from the men, but from my fellow females. Ladies, when did we decide that it was perfectly alright for a Liberal woman to have it all, but not for a Conservative woman? Admit it, had someone dared question Michelle Obama’s role as a mother, the media would’ve been foaming at the mouth and running over themselves to declare “sexism” and defend her. As it is, they’re all sounding like a bunch of Daleks “EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!”, but instead, we have a white Conservative mom of five, and suddenly everything is fair game and suddenly all those feminists who burned their bras and threw their fists up in the air for working women were spitting like wet cats and appalled that Palin had the nerve to run for Vice President. That she was choosing her career over her family, which isn’t the case at all by the way. I expect as much from men, but not from my own sex, and the sad display from my Liberal sisters has been depressing and regressive. Women didn’t fight for years for the right to vote and to be included in politics only to have a woman like Palin rise to top and have other women tear her down. I’m ashamed of you all and your “good for me, but not thee” attitudes. Shame on you…shame on you…shame on you. What kind of message are you sending to little girls? That’s it perfectly fine for a Liberal woman to want to be President, but you Conservative chicks just aren’t deserving enough! Shame on you…shame on you…shame on you. Some of you deserve to have your ovaries cut out and burned. You’re no better than these men who think we should all be barefoot and pregnant and cooking their dinner for them. I’m not saying you should vote for Palin simply because she’s a woman, but we shouldn’t allow these unwarranted and horrible attacks on her as a woman and a mother to continue. Is it too much to ask? Shame on you…shame on you…shame on you.

So there you go, tear into me if you will. Call me a “flip flopper” and tell me that I’m against women’s rights by defending Palin. Tell me that I’m a traitor to my gender and while you’re at it, question me as a mother. Tell me that I can’t be a good mother and be successful. Come on, just get it all out. It’s obviously what I deserve for having the nerve to want both.

Pathetic.