Sarah Palin may be the unlikely catalyst for expanding women's rights around the world in this century

the way Deng Xiaoping was for economic freedoms in the last.

Both of them can probably trace some lineage back to Adam Smith and David Hume (and more recently, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher).

Palin probably is not as tough or smart as Thatcher (I mean, name just one person in leadership today who is), but she may be more accessible and appealing to a broader audience.

Yesterday, I told my 7-year-old daughter that we might be looking at the first woman President of the USA. My firstborn has already made me proud, by adopting daddy's Red Sox and Patriots loyalties (without pressure from dad), which she puts on the line every day at her elementary school in New York City.

Can somebody cue Peter Gabriel's Shaking the Tree?