She introduced her children, especially little Trig, the one with Down's syndrome. She was displaying a mother's unconditional love, as opposed to the conditional love that insists on a "wanted" child. She did these things unapologetically, quite unafraid of seeming to be a normal, healthy sexist female: one who knows what it is to be a woman and enjoys it.

The early feminists were radicals inspired by Simone de Beauvoir, who thought it necessary to show that all sex differences were bourgeois conventions or stereotypes.

Simone de Beauvoir had her guy in Jean-Paul Sartre, a high-strung couple if ever there was one.

Somehow the Palins make a better model for American women--for all women. In truth some sort of feminism was necessary, but the one we had needs a major correction.

Harvey Mansfield is professor of government at Harvard and a member of the Hoover Institution's Taskforce on Virtue and Liberty. He is the author, most recently, of Manliness.