This is my third posting on Sarah Palin; you could say that she’s the gift that just keeps on giving. She came out of nowhere and now we’re scrambling to flesh out the Republican candidate for the second most important job in the country.

My earlier posts have concentrated mostly on her political attributes. This piece contains more personal information about Sarah and her family – a traditional family.

What? She comes from a “traditional” family? That’s not normal. Dysfunctional families are now the norm, aren’t they? At least that’s what the left would like us to believe.

No brother living on $1/month? No attorney son working as a Washington lobbyist? No ties to admitted domestic terrorists? What’s wrong with that family? Didn’t they get the memo?

She was raised by a loving mother and father. Now that is just soooo wrong – don’t they know that a “traditional” family is passé today? Apparently no one is in any kind of “counseling”? There aren’t any custody issues or wayward children?

Their oldest son voluntarily joined the Army and is scheduled to be shipping out to Iraq, and they’re proud of that?

The left is already asking “what’s wrong with this picture?” It’s a rhetorical question since they already know their answer – everything is wrong.

There is no place in their world for a traditional family - one that honors our traditional values of honesty, hard work, and responsibility. The left has been slowly but consistently training us to believe that all families are dysfunctional to some degree – and it’s ok, it’s “normal” to be dysfunctional – but isn’t that an oxymoron?

It is time for conservatives to stand up and call BULLSHI* on that.

Following are some excerpts from an article in the Daily Mail (UK) 8/31/2008, when Caroline Graham interviewed Sarah’s mother, Sally Heath. Her mom describes the woman who could become President and I, for one, couldn’t be more pleased.

Her 68-year-old mother last night told how Sarah had always been “a girl powered by a driving force.” “She has never been a typical girly girl. We moved to Alaska when she was a baby and she was raised to hunt, shoot, fish and play sports. She is a frontierswoman.” “She was a sporty girl and played basketball and ran track and field. She loved it so much she called her first son Track.”

“Sarah grew up hunting. She can use a gun. She and her daddy would wake up at 3am on schooldays to hunt moose.  She loves caribou [wild reindeer] burgers and is most at home with a cold beer at a barbecue.”

She said Sarah entered beauty contests, not for vanity, but to earn prize money to pursue her dreams. “She was always good-looking but never vain. We raised her to believe she could be anything she wanted to be.”

Sarah wanted to be a journalist. She wanted to go to university but knew the family budget was slim. So she went in for a beauty contest because it offered money. Sarah entered the Miss Wasilla pageant in 1984, which she won wearing a red Crimplene dress she made herself.

The following spring she came second in Miss Alaska, winning a £5,000 scholarship to Idaho University, where she studied journalism.

Sarah eloped with Todd, her childhood sweetheart, in 1988. Her mother said: “It was a shock but she did it because she knew we couldn’t afford a big white wedding. They have been together ever since. He is her rock.”

Todd is as colorful as his wife. He works on the Alaskan oil fields and has won a 2,000-mile snowmobile race called the ‘Iron Dog Race’ four times. He is one-eighth Yup’ik Eskimo. Todd is also a member of the steelworkers’ union and a seasonal oil production operator for BP, from which he earned $93,000 last year. He also helps to run the family’s commercial fishing business.

Sarah, a staunch anti-abortionist, gave birth to her youngest son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, four months ago, despite knowing he would have Down’s syndrome. Sally said: “Sarah loves that boy more than anything. When she learned he had a problem, it didn’t affect her love for him at all. In fact, I think she feels closer to him.”

Last December, Sarah posed for Vogue magazine but Sally said: “I didn’t really like the pictures. They had her in fur. She looked too glamorous. The Sarah I know is the girl in sweatpants, her baby in her arms.” “Sarah doesn’t really wear make-up. She’s much more at home with a gun than a mascara wand.”

“I would never have put Sarah down as a future vice-president, but I always knew she was destined for big things. She knows what she wants and goes after it full throttle.”

What’s not to like?

And here’s a comment from a noted democrat, Camille Paglia: “We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling,” said Paglia, the cultural critic. “That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.”

Pollster John Zoby says: "Palin is not to be underestimated. Her real strength is that she is authentic, a real mom, an outdoors person, a small town mayor (hey, she has dealt with a small town city council - that alone could be preparation for staring down Vladimir Putin, right?). She is also a reformer."

"A very important demographic in this election is going to be the politically independent woman, 15% of whom in our latest survey are undecided."

"In the final analysis, this election will be about Obama vs. McCain. Obama has staked out ground as the new JFK - a new generation, literally and figuratively, a new face of America to the world, a man who can cross lines and work with both sides. But McCain is the modern day Harry Truman - with lots of DC experience, he knows what is wrong and dysfunctional with Washington and how to fix it, and he has chosen a running mate who is about as far away from Washington as he could find.

"This contest is likely to be very close until the weekend before the election - then the dam may break and support may flood one way or the other."