Interesting read

From across the pond (although, from internal evidence, written in the US):

When gnarled former PoW John Sidney McCain III announced Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, we were introduced to a new and instantly ubiquitous phrase - "hockey mom".

Oh sure, those two words have probably been co-joined millions of times before. "Can you drive me to hockey, mom?" for instance. It's not like we're talking "shove-ha'penny" and "daschund" here.

But this was something new. This was a cold-bloodedly deliberate attempt at political branding. Palin referred to herself a hockey mom in her carefully scripted and vetted acceptance speech - and not for the first time. In 2004 she boasted: "It's said the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick. So with lipstick on, the gloves come off."

This is a deliberate political coinage. The question being, why? And how exactly does a hockey mom differ from a soccer mom?

. . .

Of course Palin misreads and underestimates both America and Americans; Republicans always do. On the train home from Philly today the three seats in front of me were filled with teenage field-hockey players - just part of the latest generation of women freed from spectating and cheerleading by America's awesome equality-of-sports-funding legislation, Title IX.

There are conservative Americans who would no doubt find these confident, cocky, assertive teenagers un-womanly and uncouth (and some conservative readers of this blog too. I'm thinking particularly of the reader who described Philadelphia's amazing female "alleycat" bike racers as "extremely unattractive, damaged, self-hating, aggressive femiNazis/lesbians.")

But they're crazy and wrong. These women look empowered, relaxed, athletic and totally in control. And they're America's next crop of young female voters. Not soccer moms. Not hockey moms. But players.

So that's at least twice that our would-be Veep has described herself as a pit-bull with lipstick. Remember, Grasshopper. In order to win in this arena, you must turn your opponents strength against them. Make their strength their weakness.