Should she stay [home with the kids] or should she go [to work], now? Ever since Sarah Palin became John McCain's VP pick, that question has been—once again—batted back and forth with increasing intensity.

The so-called Mommy Wars (the contentious debate, raging since the inception of Second Wave feminism, over whether women should work or stay home with their children) have taken on a new countenance with the advent of Palin as the poster child for the personal purporting the political. In an unfamiliar twist, many conservatives are actually defending the choices of Palin, a working mother of five, whereas some of the more traditionally liberal working moms are skewing toward criticism.

What gives? Yes, liberal working moms have a Palin predecessor: Hillary Clinton, of course, who in addition to being credited with creating "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling," worked all throughout her daughter Chelsea's life. But as many bloggers and pundits have already pointed out, Chelsea is all grown up. Hillary wasn't in the midst of actually raising an infant and young children when she sat square in the middle of the political fishbowl.

Another criticism of Palin is that she went back to work as governor of Alaska when her youngest child, Trig (who was born with Down syndrome), was just four days old. Balancing the demands of campaigning with the special needs of a baby (not to mention four other growing kids) is, according to even those moms who consider themselves liberal, at best extremely difficult, and at worst, anathema.

For their part, many conservative mothers out there in cyberspace are happily buzzing about the fact Palin actually chose to give birth to a baby she knew had Down syndrome, and that her 17-year-old, unmarried pregnant daughter Bristol is going to give birth in lieu of opting to abort. The fact that Palin is choosing to focus on work despite these challenges on the home front is overshadowed by the fact that their brand of "family values" (i.e., prolife) is being presented front and center on the political stage.

Judith Warner bridged the conservative/liberal critical divide when she noted that it's not so much whether she chooses to work or not that's so telling about Sarah Palin (or really, any woman); it's that in Palin's case, while she's working, her "delicate infant son is hauled out night after night under the klieg lights and her pregnant teenage daughter is shamelessly instrumentalized for political purposes." Warner goes on to warn, "if [Palin's] presence inspires national commentary on breast-pumping and babysitting rather than health-care reform and social security, then something is seriously wrong."

Obviously those of us who know and care about the issues know there is something seriously wrong with all of this. But I think that's why the politics and government phase of the Mommy Wars is aptly named…and limited to just mommies. As countless commentators are decrying, it's appalling that Palin is being held to a completely different parenting and professional standard because she is a woman.

But there's one interesting thing to consider in all of the querulous arguments over mothers who work and mothers who don't: From all reports, Sarah Palin's husband Todd, a.k.a. the "First Dude," is an extremely hands-on father (and ostensibly, husband). With that, we might have just stumbled upon the secret to Palin's (and every single one of her white male predecessors') potential success as VP: a supportive spouse. Imagine that.