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Back before theOprah interview and the resignation as governor of Alaska, before Tina Fey's impersonation and the announcement of Bristol's pregnancy, way back to the day John McCain named his running mate, Lisa Copeland was a Sarah Palin fan. ''When she gave her convention speech, I sat in my living room and wept,'' says Copeland, a lifelong Republican and Texas native, who is a founder of a nonprofit group, the Project 19 Foundation, to move more women into political and professional leadership roles. ''She was my age, she looks like me. I really thought she would save the party.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ours is a generation of parents obsessed with parenting -- devouring books about it, blogging about it, turning it into a competitive sport. So it's not surprising that President Obama's time in the White House looks like some kind of public experiment in child-rearing. We are intrigued by the first family not only because their children are adorable and so excited about getting a puppy and meeting the Jonas Brothers but also because our president seems to be such a good father -- loving but not a pushover, thrilled that he now has a job where he can be with the girls for breakfast and dinner, strict about their chores, slightly cranky when their school is canceled ''because of what? Some ice?'' He seems like such a good father, in fact, that many of us began expecting him to be our parent, too. What is good governing if not good parenting -- what with providing a moral compass, negotiating bickering between red and blue siblings and making sure the spinach gets eaten before we indulge in dessert? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]