Gov Sarah Palin Named Institute's 2012 Woman of the Year

Perhaps her award should have been called the Woman of this Generation, for she deserves such. Governor Palin has inspired a generation of young conservative women more than any woman since Margaret Thatcher, despite (or perhaps because of) the avalanche of assaults from the Left.

In a private luncheon in her honor, Governor Palin told the audience of about 300 female college leaders from across the nation that the Left's onslaught only makes us stronger. Governor Palin encouraged these young "constitutional conservatives" and the next generation of "Mama Grizzlies" to focus on enduring priorities of faith, family, freedom and personal responsibility.

"Pay no mind to what the rest of the world says about conservatives," she advised; and "don't look externally for your encouragement, your empowerment or your internal fortification."

"If you are mocked and belittled and ridiculed for having conservative beliefs," she told the audience, "please make sure your spine is stiffened. ... Your good positive efforts to affect the change this country needs will be worth it. At the end of the day, you're going to be able to say that that ridicule, that mocking, is for naught if you know internally what you're right priorities are and where God is leading you. All the other stuff out there on the periphery will just fade away."

She noted that Clare Boothe Luce is an example to the modern conservative woman. "Any one of her careers would have made her remarkable, but taken together, she was really outstanding and astounding."

Clare's work ethic, her drive, her commitment to make things better "is a reminder of what our role as American women must be in this world that needs women like you. She was a defender of her faith ... a stalwart cold warrior and promoter of freedom ... a fiscal conservative ... a wife and mother who once said, 'Women know what man has long forgotten, that the ultimate economic and spiritual unit of any civilization is still the family'. ... She stood on principle, and history has proven her right. She was, in short, an all-American woman—strong, proud, free, courageous."

Governor Palin closed by urging the audience to take an equally strong stand for conservative principles. "If not us," she asked, "then who?"