My son, Brandon, coined the phrase and I thought it highly appropriate. With the good looks of Angelina Jolie’s Mrs. Smith (“Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, with Brad Pitt, 2005) and the average “Joe Six-Pack” beliefs and values of a small town hockey mom, Sarah “Mrs. Smith” Palin is well on her way to Washington.

In the debates tonight she came off as likable, sincere and well-prepared, but not unwilling to leave the script and go it on her gut instinct. Sarah smiled that corner of the mouth smile and it looked like she was saying, “No way, Joe, you’re not getting away with that one.” And then she nailed him on it: whatever the “it” was, she nailed him. She stood, toe to toe, eye to eye and didn’t blink when he tried to pull something. He lied, she countered with the truth. He obfuscated and she thrust her point home. It was a fencing match that was fast paced and hard core, and she never flinched.
 

Sarah “Mrs. Smith” Palin  is the everyday hockey mom with the eyes of an eagle, the talons of a hawk and the quick reactions of a falcon. She saw through her opponent and grabbed onto his statements and quickly took them out with the facts. All while wearing four inch heels. That’s what I want in my next Vice President (to tell you the truth, I want that in my next President, but she isn’t at the head of the ticket yet. Notice that “yet”.), someone who can look the American people squarely in the  eye and speak the truth and smile as she says it, making us feel confident in it, and – the most difficult part – making us believe she’s ready for it.

Ready for the tough jobs, ready to go it against the big boys and not just have little victories, but have big, decisive victories. She reminded us of the Sarah Palin who is Governor of Alaska and won our hearts on the night of her nomination. The one who took it to the other side, called them on the carpet and yanked their tails good! Tonight Sarah “Mrs. Smith” Palin got the other side’s VP candidate so messed up that he fell into his side’s mantra, “When in doubt or trouble, lie, lie often and lie big!”

As in the Jimmy Stewart movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (Frank Capra, Dir., 1939), in which an “average Joe” (I’ll add “six pack”) goes to Washington, Stewart’s character, Mr.  Jefferson Smith was the underdog and few people – well, few people in Washington and the power brokers that be – gave Smith a snowball’s chance of getting anything done that they didn’t want done. Mr. Smith had other plans, and like Mr. Smith, Sarah Palin has other plans for both winning and for Washington.

Sarah “Mrs. Smith” Palin, underdog outsider, average and above-average, stiletto-heeled and ready to shoot, is taking on Washington insiders from the other party and winning the hearts and minds of the American people. As the underdog, Jefferson Smith of the movie said, “And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than for any other. Yes, you even die for them.” What is Sarah “Mrs. Smith” Palin’s cause? It is America: the little guy, average, everyday Joe six pack who has kids to feed, bills to pay and a mortgage that he wants to get paid off so he no longer has to worry about his kids sleeping in the car. That’s Sarah “Mrs. Smith” Palin’s cause. Not lost to her, just to the big boys in Washington who think you can’t get anything done without their help.