Marjorie Dannenfelser is the President of the Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund and Co-Founder of Team Sarah. She put out the statement below.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin

Marjorie Dannenfelser

“With the entire federal government under the control of one political party that is hostile to our values, clearly the women of Team Sarah face an intense battle on many fronts. If Governor Sarah Palin’s historic candidacy proved anything, it is that women can meet these challenges without sacrificing their femininity. And thanks to Gov, Palin’s leadership, there are more women in this battle than ever before. The very women whom the women’s movement had convinced were invisible now know their power.”

Well said.

Unfortunately, in the end, we also saw the visceral hostility towards a woman who exhibited the qualities not valued by the left. I have never seen a candidate treated with such aggressive efforts to discredit her, belittle her and spin her to be just ‘the little woman’. She’s anything but the way she has been portrayed in the media.

The talking heads are even debating whether she hurt or helped John McCain’s ticket. I don’t hear anyone questioning that about Joe Biden even though he told the country that Obama was not ready to lead. How can anyone question the excitement and energy Palin brought to the ticket? It was the perfect Presidential ticket in many ways.

Unfortunately, Sarah Palin took the wind out of the Obama campaign’s sails. She grabbed headlines and the country was enthralled. They had to get rid of her. They, the media and the Obama machine, went to work and did everything in their power to destroy her.

It is dumbfounding that exit polls showed that people said they felt McCain and Palin were more closely aligned to their own values, but still voted for Obama. People said they felt safer with McCain as President, but still voted for Obama. People said they felt Palin was better prepared to be President than Joe Biden, but still hammered us in the media that she was not prepared and still voted for Obama.

Palin was raked across the coals and worse, her family were raked across the coals. But people say that McCain ran a ‘dirty’ campaign. The media told us he did and apparently people believed that instead of seeing the horrific things that were done and said about Palin.

It was also astonishing that more women voted for Obama. I know that women tend to be harder on other women, but that was hard to understand. Jealousy? Distrust of a female in power? Self hatred? A need to be subservient to men?

Perhaps its a basic dislike of a woman who is strong and powerful but maintains her femininity.

We have missed an opportunity to put REAL change in Washington. We had two people who were willing to put honor and integrity and love of country above their own political careers. And that cost them the election. They didn’t wallow in the gutters with the opposition who was willing to attack them on every level … personally, professionally. The media took the accusations and ran with it.

Real change would have been ethics in politics. Instead, we have the same, someone who asks for more pork than another Senator, who owes political favors and who is willing to do anything to win.

McCain would have been a great President. He would have kept us safe and would have used his power in an ethical, responsible manner. Sarah Palin would have represented our country with dignity and grace as a Vice-President.

Now we can only pray that nothing happens to Obama, because then Joe Biden would be President and that is an even more discouraging thought.