Sarah Palin, Feminist.

And who is calling her that? The authority on all things good-for-women, Pennsylvanian's own Rick Santorum.

"Sarah Palin is the Clarence Thomas for feminists. The civil rights community, the African-American community obviously should have rallied behind Clarence Thomas an his achievement, but they hammered him because he was a conservative. And the civil rights establishment was first and foremost liberal and then for the liberal rights of -- as liberals saw it, what blacks should have in this country. And the same thing with the feminist community."

As we all know, Rick Santorum is not alone in this sentiment. Today in Salon another Pennsylvanian, Camille Paglia, wrote about her views on the flavor of feminism she thinks Palin represents:

"Conservative though she may be, I felt that Palin represented an explosion of a brand new style of muscular American feminism. At her startling debut on that day, she was combining male and female qualities in ways that I have never seen before. And she was somehow able to seem simultaneously reassuringly traditional and gung-ho futurist. In terms of redefining the persona for female authority and leadership, Palin has made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist establishment."

Pro-sex? As long as it's in the context of marriage.

Paglia goes on to question how Palin's take on women's health and other liberally branded social issues would play out, should she take office. She wrongly equates Palin's overtly Christian/Dictated By God stance with the media uproar over Obama's relationship with Rev. Wright. Paglia seems to think it's all an over-reaction.

I don't know if people are reacting enough. Polls show that this very tactic, the branding of Sarah Palin as a trail-blazer for young-girls and Obama as a name-calling (see "pig with lipstick" controvery) anti-feminist, is working. I hope the glitter and shine attached to Palin's nomination wears off sooner, rather than later.