Most interesting in this column is the small comparison toward the end between Sarah Palin and Nancy Pelosi of “the Catholic Church isn’t sure when life begins” fame. (She can, of course, believe whatever she wants, however ill informed. To claim the Catholic Church isn’t sure, however… might leave many a pro-choicer confused: Call back the hounds! They’re ON OUR SIDE!)

The contrast with Nancy Pelosi, another mother of five, is instructive. The first woman Speaker of the House, she holds a position more powerful than the vice-presidency. By all accounts, she is no great thinker and a woman of modest accomplishment. Yet she comes from the ruling class — her father was a congressman, her brother a mayor and her husband fabulously wealthy. She belongs. Governor Palin — a newcomer to political office who married a blue collar man and went to university in Idaho — does not. The difference in how they have been treated is instructive.

Instructive, yes.