Palin the high-wire act

Ace approves of the risk-taking Sarah Palin in a sea of safe, drab, and gray liberal women.
Sarah Palin is attractive partly because she lives such a dangerous life -- flying solo, taking fire. Female liberals can't ever live dangerous lives like this in their cushy think-tanks and nicely taken care of by the still-mostly-male establishment that will see to it they always have a job, somewhere.
Risk-taking is usually called a male behavior; females have it, too, of course, but women are usually considered more risk-averse. As the establishment has become more feminized, it has also become risk-averse, to the point where no one working within it can really be any kind of gutsy maverick. The establishment -- both wings of it -- attacked Palin ferociously and drove her as far as possible out of any sort of safe career trajectory.
Ironically, though, this now puts Palin in the position of an Amelia Earhart, a Teddy Roosevelt -- someone living the vigorous, dangerous life. Which makes her all the more attractive to a public which can't help but notice that most of the vitality, most of the blood seems drained from public life and public ambition.