Ever since John McCain plucked her from left — or rather, far right — field to become his running mate, the nation has been turning in a Sarah Palin tailspin. Her appearance on the covers of not one but two upcoming celebrity weekly magazines suggests (in addition, of course, to the blurring line between celebrity and politics) the extent of the public's fascination over the relatively unknown Alaskan governor.

Unless you're living in a cave, you can't have missed the announcement that Palin's seventeen-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five-months pregnant. Let's face facts: teenage pregnancy happens in our country (and by the way, kudos to Barack Obama for staying above the fray, at least ostensibly, by proclaiming "people's families are of-limits").  All the time. And the news is especially unsurprising given the fact that Palin opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest (another case in point: due to tests in utero, she knew her baby son Trig was going to be born with Down's Syndrome, but chose to forego an abortion in favor of having him). 

A Palin primer for other key issues:

•    Believes marriage is between a man and a woman only
•    Urges schools to teach creationism/intelligent design alongside evolution and for teachers to lead prayer in schools
•    Claims global warming is not man made
•    Stands behind offshore oil drilling
•    Lifelong NRA member (she hunts and fishes herself)
•    Supports market-driven healthcare (privatization)
•    …and don't forget, she's been a beauty queen, too! (including winning the title of "Miss Congeniality" in a 1984 pageant)

The reaction to her ascension in the blogosphere has been, to say the least, vocal and sensational…or sensationalized, depending on your perspective. Given Palin's extreme conservatism, not to mention the other controversy shrouding her, some of the punditocracy is vehemently opposed to her nomination, and some are looking at her as clutching the golden ticket.

Regardless of her perceived pros and cons, though, there's ultimately something about the emergence of a strong woman that makes men angling for power a little skittish, and it'll be interesting to determine how capably Obama responds and/or diffuses to the supposed threat presented by Palin-as-McCain-V.P. If his neat (and generally respectful) grasp of the nomination out of the hand of the Hillary Clinton juggernaut is any indication, he'll probably hold up just fine under any Palin pressure. In fact, now that Hillary has been urging her supporters to embrace Obama's candidacy, I bet that over the next couple of months, she will in turn be much more visibly embraced and courted by the Obama-ites. May the best man, er, woman, win.