End of the Women's Auxiliary

A two-page color photo in Time magazine, Sept. 15, says it all.

Two men and two women are sitting around a table: Republican presidential nomineee John McCain, his wife Cindy, his campaign manager Steve Schmidt, and vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, holding her baby.

They're not eating or relaxing but at work on the campaign bus.

Two women and two men. And a baby.

For the first time in GOP campaign history, women are not relegated to the kitchen or poolside while men strategize--and a baby is part of the picture.

Reproduction is not a conveniently forgotten fact of life but a noisy reality.

I have to applaud this change in the national landscape.

Even if Democrats lose along with Roe v. Wade and the chance to "make peace not war" internationally, continents are shifting.

Gender roles frozen for millennia are thawing and reshaping.

The political cartoon in today's Los Angles Times shows a man in 1920 asking a suffragist, "Shouldn't you be at home, taking care of your family?" while a female critic in 2008 asks Palin the same question (drawn by Steve Breen of the San Diego Union-Tribune).

It's delightful to see social conservatives confused over whether to support Palin as a right-wing anti-abortionist or condemn her for not staying home with her children.

To the extent that they go for those single issues, they are dragged kicking and screaming into the feminist revolution.

Values voters now have values looming up on all sides.

To vote against women, they have to vote for one woman.

What a hoot!