Sarah Palin Bared

So Sarah Palin has heavy-ish legs, well-waxed and polished. A photo taken for Runner's World in June '09 on this week's cover of Newsweek exposes most of them. At least to just above mid-thigh, where they're covered in modest black shorts. In fact, the whole outfit is "pure modesty panel". It's the pose that's provocative in a retro way: 1950's cheerleader cheesecake. Her left leg is demurely raised in classic beauty-queen form, (to partially cover her crotch.) Her right arm sits assertively on her hip. Her head is coyly cocked. It's not the least bit sexy, at least as we've come to know sexy in the 21st century. But it's suggestive enough to let us know she's prepared to bare an aspect of her sexuality in public, (even though it's astutely disguised by athletics.) Revealed legs have always connoted sex...in the 19th C it was a mere ankle.

Can you imagine Obama in such an outfit, in such a pose? Or Nancy Pelosi? Or any president or presidential candidate?

We are all sexual beings. Some of us wear that more overtly than most: it shines through. Movie stars do; politicians usually don't, although Obama is sexy and so is Nancy Pelosi. And so is Sarah Palin, in a girlish, gregarious way. It's not invitational so much as high-spirited. "I'm so much fun!"

But why is a woman aiming for the leadership of the lead nation on earth peeling off a crucial layer of decorum? How does that contribute to solving the egregious issues facing this country? How does it show she has the wisdom, judgement, depth, knowledge, perspective for the job?

We know she has sex. She has children for god's sake. She may even have great sex. But cheesecake photos, even one as understated and ambiguous as the one on Newsweek's cover imply compliance, availability or at the very least are an overture for fantasy. Even the Blackberry she's proffering with her right hand says, "Call me."

Aspiring presidents don't say "C'mere."