If I were Vice President and not a stay at home mom, the first slide in my morning brief would show the location of my deployed son’s unit. I would be especially vigilant in foreign policy meetings to ensure our decisions would not unnecessarily risk the lives of anybody’s children. Any Senator from Illinois who claimed to support the troops while undercutting their mission would FEEL MY WRATH.

If I were Vice President and not a stay at home mom, mac and cheese or McDonald’s for dinner would be history. No matter how busy our family schedule would be on a given day, it wouldn’t matter that I was too tired to cook something nutritious and appealing to little appetites because there would be a kitchen staff to do it for me.

If I were Vice President and not a stay at home mom, I’d be relieved that my days of waiting for doctor’s appointments were over. With a physician available, I wouldn’t have to drag a sick child out of bed to the emergency room in the freezing cold because he happened to develop an ear infection at 2:00 AM on Sunday. My special needs child would have access to the top specialists for his condition.

If I were Vice President and not a stay at home mom, my remaining young daughters would never go on another date without a chaperone. They would resent it, but the Secret Service would be with them in situations where parents should give their children some leeway, but honestly don’t want to.

If I were Vice President and not a stay at home mom, my family would travel the world and see history in the making. There would be no long lines at the airport or the challenge of keeping track of 14 shoes, 7 carry on bags and 5 little fugitives while trying to get the cursed stroller folded into the x-ray machine at the security checkpoint. My children would learn first hand that the United States of America is the greatest country on Earth.

If I were Vice President and not a stay at home mom, my husband, my children and I would have to sacrifice privacy, quality time, our comfortable routine, control over our lives, and proximity to extended family. Despite these hardships, if the next President felt that I had the unique potential to strengthen America and secure a future of liberty and prosperity for my children and grandchildren, I would do it in a heartbeat.

With a houseful of kids, a son in the infantry, an expectant daughter, a special needs baby, and a challenging job, Governor Sarah Palin is someone to whom every American mom can relate. Whether we work at home or in a factory or in an office, whether we have one child or eleven, all of us feel overwhelmed and inadequate more often than we should. We regret that we aren’t perfect, and we blame ourselves when our children aren’t the best behaved, or the smartest, or the healthiest.

So please, liberals, keep alienating millions of American mothers by criticizing the Palin family. You will never say anything harsher about Gov. Palin than she has already thought about herself.