I am no fan of Sarah Palin. I don’t believe that she has any right to be a torchbearer for anything political since giving up the governership of Alaska.

Her naked ambitions to run for President are all too apparent, no matter how poorly she attempts to disguise it. Her well timed book publication and its inevitable top ten placement in the New York Times Best Sellers List will probably end up funding her presidential campaign in 2012….which she will lose and probably lose badly.

She is her own best friend as well as own worst enemy. The conservatives think the former, what remains of the Republican Party believe the latter.

So I was quite surprised to read about Newsweek’s latest publication with Sarah Palin on its front cover. It is a photo cropped from an authorised publication of her in very short running shorts, sneakers and a lot of thigh.

That photo was originally published in the August 2009 issue of Runners World, accompanied by a caption – “I’m a runner”. I am sure that the caption was not referring to her political ambitions but to her love for all  sports and the importance of exercise.

Newsweek cropped that photo for its front cover and in a rather snarky way wrote ” Why she’s bad news for the GOP – and for everyone else too.”

Palin retorted on her Facebook page, “The choice of photo for the cover of this week’s Newsweek is unfortunate. When it comes to Sarah Palin, this “news” magazine has relished focusing on the irrelevant rather than the relevant. The Runner’s World magazine one-page profile for which this photo was taken was all about health and fitness — a subject to which I am devoted and which is critically important to this nation. The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now. If anyone can learn anything from it: it shows why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, gender, or color of skin. The media will do anything to draw attention — even if out of context.”

And for once Sarah Palin is absolutely right. Depicting her in a rather skimpy outfit on the front page of the second largest news weekly magazine in the U.S, published in New York and known to be left leaning is indeed sexist and Newsweek should learn some manners.

I am all for a laugh, but imagine for a moment that agreeing to be photographed in a pose that in context is absolutely appropriate – to encourage more people to exercise more often; and then without your consent have that photo cropped and placed on the front cover of Newsweek so that it appears to be rather suggestive and to support the theory that Palin is nothing more than a political wannabe airhead, is insulting, sexist and unfair.

Newsweek should know better.