The main reason so many feminists are having a hard time getting excited about Gov Palin is that she is rightwing. Feminism has long been torn between focusing on the fight against sexism pure and simple, and waging a broader campaign for a “women’s agenda”, on which abortion rights tend to feature prominently. Gov Palin, a proud social conservative who carried her Down’s syndrome baby to term and is sympathetic to creationism, is on the opposite side of most of those issues.