Since I posted my blog on Sarah Palin yesterday, I have had a number of colleagues and friends email me about my opinion. There was the expected, "right on, you nailed it." But the more illuminating have been the conversations with those who tell me I'm so, so, so wrong.

They point out that Barack Obama is equally unqualified for the presidency as Palin. Others are parsing Obama's qualifications against Palin. I'll leave my comments on that for a later blog.

But what these conversations have made me ponder is this: will we choose our president the way we choose our brand of cars, stores we shop at, clothes we where? Are we Target or Wal-Mart? Are we Chevys or Toyotas? Will we choose our president because we see ourselves in them? Do we, in fact, need to see the candidate in the mirror?

A number of people who disagreed with my opinion that McCain had dissed women by choosing someone unqualified tell me that they have had conversations with women who say they can see themselves in Palin. That's an intriguing qualification for one of the highest elected offices in the U.S.

But the image in the mirror may end up being the most important on Nov. 4 when we are by ourselves in a voting booth.

Instead of focusing on qualifications such as working with Congress to get laws passed or a working knowledge of a national and global economy or strong foreign policy expertise, (both tickets offer these qualifications in greater or lesser strength) voters will end up choosing between the candidates who make sense on a very emotional level. We will vote because we see ourselves in the candidates.

The question with Palin is whether more women will see themselves in her--and McCain--than they do in Obama, his family and his worldview. I do believe women will be a powerful force in choosing who our next president will be--now even more than they have in the past. McCain's choice points out the deep divisions between women on issues such as women's right to choose and the environment. It reveals the divisions as well between how we see ourselves as women. My reaction to McCain's choice was visceral and emotional. I don't see myself in Sarah.

I had asked in my past blog why McCain couldn't find a woman within the Republican Party who could give him all the attributes of a Palin, but be even more adept at gaining traction with a broader group of women. If he was going to make history, I would have hoped he would have made history with a woman who more of us could have believed in.

Here's a choice since my dissenters have, of course, asked: who would you have picked? A few months ago, I listened to Meg Whitman, the former ceo of eBay, talk about what she was going to do next at a dinner for Detroit's most influential women. At the time she was serving on the Romney ticket as finance chair. She is now working on the McCain team. Whitman is a wife, a mother, a powerful ceo, a woman who had broken down barriers throughout her career, a proven leader who could have given McCain needed experience on economic issues. Now there is a woman I could see myself in.