During my appearance on CNN.com/LIVE on Monday (7/6), I mentioned that one of the side effects of soon-to-be-former Alaska Governor and GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s decision to not run for re-election as governor and to resign as of July 26 is that, seeing that she has done it (run for her state’s highest office and then leave it with 18 months to go) and justified those decisions with a variety of rationales, who is to say that she has not opened a floodgate for potential female primary candidates for the GOP presidential and vice presidential nominations? Male candidates become “career politicians” all the time, from both parties, right? Why not the women?  If we’re breaking down barriers, why not let the ambition women have be overt, just like the men’s, to keep climbing higher in politics?

This thought path got me thinking:

Could we see a female-female GOP ticket for president and vice president in 2012?

Why not?

In addition to Palin’s decision-making leading me to wonder outloud about this possibility, there are the multiple groups that continue to support women who want to engage in a political life and even enter politics.

Then, there’s the galvanizing fact that since January 2009, our country has gone from having 42 male and eight female governors, to, by the end of July 2009, having 44 male and six female governors (Janet Napolitano and Kathleen Sebelius moved to cabinet positions in the Obama administration and that took us down to seven; Palin’s departure before the end of her first term leaves us with six).

Napolitano was replaced by a woman, so the remaining six will be:

1. Arizona – Jan Brewer

2. Connecticut – M. Jodi Rell

3. Hawaii – Linda Lingle

4. Michigan – Jennifer Granholm

5. North Carolina – Bev Perdue

6. Washington – Christine Gregoire

This Women’s eNews article explains how we got into this situation, but here’s the gist:

There are currently eight female governors, and one–Democrat Ruth Ann Minner of Delaware–is retiring, to be replaced by one of three male nominees.

The other seven gubernatorial races this year feature all-male slates.

This year’s field of female nominees is down from the record 10 that ran each year in 1994, 2002 and 2006, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.

That’s partly because there are only 11 governor’s races this year, far fewer than in midterm election years, which host more gubernatorial elections.

And then there’s the fact that the U.S. is only 72nd in the world in the number of women in its federal legislature (17% are women in the Congress overall; in the state legislatures, it’s about 24%).  The top 10 countries on that list – all but the last two with 40% or more of its national legislature being female?

Rwanda
Sweden
South Africa
Cuba
Iceland
Finland
Netherlands
Argentina
Denmark
Angola

And, with Palin deciding she must go now, we will have barely over 5% of our country’s governors being women by next month.

Totally unacceptable.

So, who have I thought of, literally just off the top of my head? The top three, and most seriously potential contenders for a presidential or vice-presidential run, based on the GOP’s Palin-as-VP benchmark for the GOP:

1. Kay Bailey Hutchison – Hutchison is running to win the GOP Texas governor nomination against incumbent Rick Perry.  Whether or not she wins, why shouldn’t she be considered a serious presidential or VP candidate? Again, if Sarah can be…

2. Sarah Steelman – Steelman won big marks from some conservative segments for pushing a tiny pilot project that was composed of investment funds that were 100% devoid of companies that dealt with Iran.  She was Missouri Treasurer for four years but lost in her bid to become governor in a narrow primary loss. Her Wikipedia entry says,

“Treasurer Steelman may run for the United States Senate against incumbent Claire McCaskill in 2012 or run for governor against incumbent Jay Nixon that year. She may also run for the open seat in 2010 due to Kit Bond‘s retirement.”

If Sarah can do it, why not…Sarah? Steelman that is.

3. Meg Whitman – Whitman is best known for her success and decade-long tenure as President and CEO of eBay, but she actually started out at P&G in Cincinnati, yeah Ohio.  She spoke at the RNC’s convention last year and has raised several million dollars toward her CA gubernatorial primary (Arnold Schwarzenegger is term-limited). Wikipedia has a nice portraiture display of CA candidates and potential candidates, and Carly Fiorina is in the bunch under the GOP but might run against one of CA’s U.S. Senators, Barbara Boxer.  Still, if we learned nothing from John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin and its impact on predicting political trajectories, we’ve learned not to count out anyone as a potential 2012 GOP female-female White House ticket.

Read the rest of the possibilities, for a total of eight good potential candidates, at the original Writes Like She Talks post.