Mark McKinnon: Sarah Palin's "Mama Grizzlies'

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Political consultant Mark McKinnon, President of Maverick Media and Vice-Chairman of Austin based Public Strategies, Inc., is the latest of several pundits to write recently about Sarah Palin's "mama grizzlies." A few excerpts:

No matter your gender or politics, you have to hand it to her: Palin is fearless. “You don't want to mess with moms who are rising up,” the Wasilla warrior said last week. “If you thought pit bulls were tough, you don't want to mess with mama grizzlies.”

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With the growing disconnect between the political class (dancing the night away at a State Dinner on the South Lawn beneath baubles and butterflies and yukking it up at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner) and mainstream America (working hard to feed their families with 9.9 percent unemployment looming overhead and watching while the nation’s greatest environmental crisis unfolds), voters have lost patience.

Agree with them or not, it’s the women of the GOP—like Sarah Palin, Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) and Gov. Jan Brewer (AZ)—who are tough enough to say exactly what they think. And their words are resonating with an increasingly vocal electoral bloc.

Women accounted for 54 percent of voters in the 2008 elections. Yet only six women currently serve as governors, with 17 in the U.S. Senate, and 76 in the House.

That underrepresentation may be about to change with a record number of women—and Republican women—running.

McKinnon goes on to briefly profile eleven Republican women who he believes bear watching. Of these, Sarah Palin has formally endorsed three -- Nikki Haley, Carly Fiorina, and Susana Martinez -- and has publicly supported a fourth, Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona. Among the other seven on McKinnon's list, at least four are candidates with impressive conservative credentials, and we wonder whether one or more of them may be under consideration by the governor for possible endorsements.

State Rep. Sandy Adams is one of no less than fourteen Republican running in the crowded Florida-24 primary. This district is one of those targeted by SarahPAC in its "Take Back the 20" effort.

Mary Fallin is running for governor of Oklahoma, a position she seems well qualified for, having served as lieutenant governor for 12 years. The is the first woman in her state to hold that office.

Dr. Deborah Travis Honeycutt, a congressional candidate in Georgia-13, is a physician, Constitutionalist, Christian and advocate of the Fair Tax. She's an outspoken opponent of ObamaCare.

Angela McGlowan, running in Mississippi-1 is a small businesswoman, motivational speaker and best-selling author of Bamboozled: How Americans Are Being Exploited by the Lies of the Liberal Agenda.

- JP