First, a mission statement:

Extraordinary Women’s mission is to host Christian women’s events and provide resources that equip women to handle life’s difficulties while enriching their hearts, encouraging their souls and expanding their ministries.

That doesn’t mention anything about providing high-quality promotional pictures, so all I have at the moment is this one shot, courtesy of “Recovering Liberal” M. Joseph Sheppard, of Sarah Palin rocking a not-too-scandalous outfit:

I must point out that not all of Mr Sheppard’s commenters liked her garb.

(Shot my way by Smitty, since he knew I’d use it.)

Update: Mr Sheppard advises that this shot actually came from the conference in Lynchburg, a couple of weeks earlier. (More info.)

Further update: Missy Stewart has the word from Tupelo.

Ric Locke projects the political future on the right side of the aisle:

The Tea Parties have said repeatedly that they don’t want and won’t support leaders, and conservatives don’t have any real national leadership. If Palin provides both with somewhere to go, she can be a mover and shaker without subjecting herself to a full-court MSM push in a run for office — and my reading of her indicates that she’d think that just delightful.

If the process continues, Michael Steele could wake up one morning and find himself in charge of a near-irrelevant rump. There’s no reason to support a centrist Democrat Lite if a real Democrat is available, and the only reason conservatives do business with them at all is to plump up the numbers a bit.

There’s only one piece of that with which I’d take issue: “Michael Steele could wake up.” Not a chance.

New York magazine once asked Kirsten Gillibrand (yes, the Senator) about a pair of flats she was wearing, and she dismissed them with “You would never write about Chuck Schumer’s shoes.”

Depends on how he paid for them, I suppose. But this New York Times piece, while acknowledging Senator Gillibrand’s remark, nonetheless proceeds to identify what is supposed to be the It shoe for women in politics: “Halle” by Kate Spade, an unfussy three-inch-high wedge that sells for about $300. (I checked a couple of online storefronts, but they were out. Evidently the Gray Lady still has some marketing clout.)

Says Times writer Susan Dominus:

They seem to be the shoes of a circle of younger women aspiring to power or already in it, women directly and indirectly passing on to one another ways of navigating the particular challenges of being a woman in the public eye. A woman must look put-together, but not as if she is a slave to fashion; she must look groomed, but never be spotted grooming.

I can’t see Sarah Palin wearing that particular shoe. Then again, I can’t see Chuck Schumer wearing it either.

Says Rachel at Tinkerty Tonk:

Not for nothing, but if the NYT is gonna devote an article to a shoe would it kill them to show a picture of said shoe?

I suspect somebody at the Times checked a couple of online storefronts, but they were out. (Rachel, however, does have a picture.)

With the notable exception of Andrew Sullivan, who presumably remains forever trapped in the womb, the goofier members of the leftosphere have now turned their attention, if that’s the word, to Sarah Palin’s rack, and whether it has been, um, artificially enhanced.

Now I admit to being easily flustered by discussions along these lines, but that should surprise no one, so I shall press ahead. My first thought, apart from “Oh, wow,” was that this would spark a call to tax those wicked breast implants, but the Senate already thought about that once, to the extent that anything the Senate does can be classified as “thought,” and it wound up on the cutting-room floor.

And then I happened on this musing by Stephen W. Browne, which started out as a contemplation of former Citibanker Debrahlee Lorenzana (previously described here), and which suggests to me that maybe it’s something else entirely:

At an American Studies Conference in Minsk, Belarus, I met an American woman, a clueless lefty academic. To give you an idea how clueless, at one point in a presentation she referred to the “bearded, Christlike figures of Che and Castro.” She didn’t even notice the cold wave that swept across the room from the Belarusians desperately praying for the fall of communism in their country.

At one point she touched on the theme of how “cultural imperialism” is spreading the “Caucasian ideal” of beauty across the world. (She was, by the way, not beautiful.)

This is, of course, not to say that there are absolutely no hotties on the left: have you seen Mrs Kucinich lately? Nor does everyone on that side of the aisle fall back so easily upon cliché; I know enough counterexamples to know better. I submit, though, that people who find their connection to the divine in the likes of Fidel Castro probably should not be trusted on matters of beauty.

Danica Patrick: the Sarah Palin of NASCAR?

There’s little in the way of middle ground when it comes to Danica. People either love her for her gumption in taking on the boys, dislike her for her sometimes surly persona and penchant for self-promotion, or really really REALLY can’t stand her. A large percentage of the latter devote an even larger amount of time to expressing this sentiment, be it in assorted sordid columns for various publication channels or in the comments area of same.

Never seen Sarah surly, but that makes sense. And besides:

Both Danica Patrick and Sarah Palin have a lot of fans who adore them regardless of how media elements tell them otherwise. There are throngs of people waiting for Palin at every stop in her book promotion tour not to jeer but cheer, fueled by political and personal admiration. Patrick also has her group of followers, young girls invariably decked out in #7 gear in attendance at every IRL race. They’re there because their heroine is there, the girl who takes on, holds her own against and sometimes bests the boys.

On the other hand, Sarah’s never done this:

Not for Sports Illustrated, anyway.

Virginia Postrel, a self-described “bona fide coastal elitist intellectual snob,” isn’t what you’d call a Sarah Palin fan, but she does have something to say about that infamous Newsweek cover:

There are, of course, problems with the photo, which was taken for Runner’s World and was supposed to be embargoed for a year. Nonetheless, it’s clear what Newsweek editors were thinking when they picked it: This is going to sell magazines. (The controversy is a bonus. Free publicity!) Journalism is in survival mode. This is not a time to get squeamish about using the most commercial photo available.

Dollars trump ideology. This is not to say that dollars are independent of ideology — the more you have of the former, the easier it is to implement the latter — but ultimately, as that guy with the ever-changing name says, it’s all about the Benjamins.

As for the charges of “sexism,” Postrel observes:

The cries that the cover is “sexist” assume two things: First, that women in public life should not be portrayed as consciously, proudly, sexily attractive. Male politicians can be obviously good looking, but conspicuously attractive women aren’t sufficiently serious. (Maybe we’ll make an exception if you look sufficiently high-end WASP.)

I don’t recall a lot of complaints about, for instance, Barack Obama topless.

And I can’t help thinking that the aforementioned elites would have a lot less of a problem with Palin if she sounded like Diane Rehm.

And, second, that Newsweek doesn’t like Sarah Palin — an assumption borne out by its cover headline. With different editorial framing, the photo would be read differently.

A demonstration of this argument is provided.

Finally, there’s this:

I do have one question: Is she wearing panty hose?

Based on the other Runner’s World photos, and on an examination of the small number of Palin photos I keep on hand for just this sort of research, I believe that she is not.

From Coyote Blog:

I generally don’t do horserace style political blogging on strategy between the Coke and Pepsi parties, and I am not going to start now. However, I did find it funny that it was Mike Huckabee threatening Sarah Palin that she should not leave the GOP. It’s funny to me because of all the things the GOP could do to potentially attract me to the party, having Mike Huckabee leave the party would be close to first on the list.

This motivated me to get up and pour another Dr Pepper.

I didn’t write a word of this, but then I really didn’t have to.

While contemplating Sarah Palin’s potential for 2012, which may or may not be affected by her decision to step down as Governor of Alaska, Smitty takes note of another woman who is known to have interest in the Oval Office:

In the credit where due department, HRC is nothing if not cunning. She’s suddenly not going to Russia. Of course, it’s entire too early to connect the dots with other (scroll down a bit) “Unwelcome Distractions”. But it doesn’t take a prophet to realize that, if BHO is AFU in 2012, HRC will come back with the fury of a cancer that’s been in remission for a few years. Possibly I could have chosen a more pleasant metaphor, but as long as the electorate favors Beltway hangtime over Constitutional fidelity, the egalitarian oxymoron “political class” shall continue to weaken all you hold dear, tumor-like.

Not to mention growing.

The Governor of Alaska is interviewed in the August Runner’s World, whence this picture was swiped, and she’s definitely the type to go the distance, hang the consequences:

I went for a run at John McCain’s ranch a couple of days before the debate with Joe Biden. My favorite thing in the world is to run on hot, dusty roads. I don’t get enough of that in Alaska. So I was in heaven and there were plenty of hills so I knew my thighs were going to just throb and my lungs were going to burn and that’s what I crave.

I like running alone and having the Secret Service with me added a little bit of pressure. I’m thinking I gotta have good form and can’t be hyperventilating and can’t be showing too much pain and that adds a little more pressure on you as you’re trying to be out there enjoying your run. Then I fell coming down a hill and was so stinkin’ embarrassed that a golf cart full of Secret Service guys had to pull up beside me. My hands just got torn up and I was dripping blood. In the debate you could see a big fat ugly Band-Aid on my right hand. I have a nice war wound now as a reminder of that fall in the palm of my right hand. For much of the campaign, shaking hands was a little bit painful.

The Secret Service, incidentally, lived up to their name by never saying a word about it.

The shoes (since you’re going to ask): Asics. More photos here.

The Governor of Alaska showed up for Founder’s Day in Auburn, New York on Saturday.

Why, you ask? Auburn’s own William H. Seward, who served as Secretary of State in the Lincoln and (Andrew) Johnson administrations, was responsible for negotiating the purchase of Alaska from the Russians in 1867, and inasmuch as it’s the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood this year … well, you get the idea. And the crowd was duly wowed.

Incidentally, that’s a ’59 Cadillac. Of course.

Morgan Freeberg has a nice little comic rendering of Sarah Palin, but I like this one better:

She stands between Barack the Barbarian and the Treasure of Stimuli.

No, really.

(Via Webutante.)

It’s a little store on Juneau’s Seward Street called Shoefly + Hudsons, and here’s the scoop:

The shop, opened in 2005 by business partners Sydney Mitchell and Dawn Walsh, carries an array of rugged-meets-girly footwear, from strappy sandals to colorful cowgirl boots.

Of Palin’s shopping sprees, Mitchell stuck to the store’s “what happens at Shoefly + Hudsons stays at Shoefly + Hudsons” policy (okay, that’s really just in regard to sharing the personal info of those who sign up for the email newsletter) but she did say this: “Obviously she’s a busy elected official and doesn’t spend a lot of time shopping. But when Palin does stop in, usually there’s a family member with her. Last time she had Trig with her. She’s very personable and gracious and fun to help.”

To absolutely no one’s surprise, the governor “tends toward heels.”

Apparently Sarah Palin wears a size 7½ shoe.

This won’t satisfy the one guy in my search logs every week looking for Ann Coulter’s shoe size, but you can’t have everything.

(Courtesy of Fausta.)

John Salmon spotted what he thought was a gratuitous Sarah Palin comparison in a New York Times article about Caroline Kennedy, which prompted this even more gratuitous comment from me:

Not that it’s a qualification or anything, but at least Caroline has a fair set o’ stems, if not in Sarah’s league.

Yeah, you can see how I mark my ballots. :)

Mr Salmon embraced this concept briefly (sorry, briefs not available):

Selecting women candidates by legs or other critical body parts is fine by me — after all, we’re going to have to look at them a lot, if they win. The only problem is a race between the likes of a Golda Meir and a Margaret Thatcher. I might have to sit that one out.

And then backed away ever so slightly:

Lest I be viewed as a sexist for the above comment, let me say that “The Sarah Rule”, that is to say, evaluating female candidates by their appearance, should only be used to break a tie. If you [have to choose between] two women whose experience, philosophy, etc. are more or less equal, then using TSR may be necessary.

In other words, Kay Bailey Hutchison over either Sandra Bullock or Sheryl Crow. I don’t have a problem with that.

Inasmuch as I’m going to be viewed as a sexist anyway for bringing it up, here’s some evidence to support my earlier premise, as snagged from CNN:

Again, not that it’s a qualification or anything. You’re not going to see me pushing, say, Zooey Deschanel for Congress.

Andrew Crossett’s Celebrity Legs Gallery is one of my oldest bookmarks, for reasons I surely need not explain. The past few weeks, he’s been taking votes for the Best Celebrity Legs of 2008, and to my amusement, pixie-sized Kristen Bell (she’s five-one) got the most. (You tend to expect someone with seemingly-endless gams to take the title, or at least I do.)

Even more amusing, among the next ten, Tina Fey and Sarah Palin wound up right next to each other.

And the late Gloria Grahame was inducted into the Hall of Fame, in case you thought Mr Crossett’s readers might be afflicted by the Tyranny of the New.

Hmmm. Look who bought an outfit for Sarah Palin:

Ethics disclosure forms recently obtained under the Freedom of Information Act contained this oddity: $300 in clothes and footwear from … CNBC.

Turns out that the network’s Maria Bartiromo sat down with the Alaska governor in August, just days before she became John McCain’s running mate. The interview about oil, energy and drilling was conducted in Palin’s Anchorage office, where she wore her own suit and high heels, according to CNBC sources. The producers asked to continue the interview in the oil fields; since Palin didn’t have outdoor gear at the office, a CNBC assistant raced out to buy a jacket and hiking shoes for the location shoot.

The network didn’t give it another thought, but Palin dutifully reported it as a gift on her disclosure form.

The only surprising aspect of this, if you ask me, is that she didn’t have a set of outdoor duds hanging in the closet in that Anchorage office. You never can tell when you might need that sort of thing.

(Via Romenesko.)

It’s not every day I get a letter from Sarah Palin. Nothing personal, though: the Guv is offering a new Alaska travel guide, and while the Last Frontier is not exactly the vacation spot of my dreams, at least the dreams I have during the last week of November, I have to figure that Palin’s visibility over the past few months has insured that a larger percentage of residents of the Lower 48 have actually heard of Alaska these days, so maybe this promotion may pay off.

Someday, though, I should go, if only because I haven’t been there yet.

Morgan Freeberg has decided that women’s legs are evidence of intelligent design:

You know that thing going around about how bananas are an atheist’s nightmare, because they possess so many attributes all of which seem to be orchestrated toward making them easier to eat? The same is true of the female gam. Designed by an intelligent Higher Power, to be observed and appreciated.

Entered into the record: Exhibit A AK.