One of the biggest celebrities on the world stage is currently Sarah Palin and I guess folks in the USA either love her or or hate her in equal measure. Sarah has often been linked in the press to Wonder Woman. This is typified by the now famous 'photoshop' photograph showing Sarah apparently posing with a rifle in a Stars and Stripes Bikini.

So who was Wonder Woman? Some of us of mature years will remember her in the 1970s TV show The New Original Wonder Woman featuring Lynda Carter. Like Superman and Clerk Kent, Wonder Woman has an alias as Diana Prince a spectacle-wearing Naval Officer (who bears a strong resemblance to Sarah Palin). Wonder Woman’s outfit is sexy and, in USA terms, patriotic. Hence the idea of putting Sarah Palin, an ex beauty Queen, in a Stars and Stripes bikini.

A memorable moment, often repeated in the TV show, is when demure Diana Prince spots danger and immediately goes into a slightly awkward pirouette with her arms outstretched. Suddenly there is a flash of light and she continues to spin but minus glasses and her business suit, her Wonder Woman costume now exposed for all to see.

This transition sequence was invented specifically for the TV show. The artistic intention was a dramatic transformation from ordinary woman to superhero but the visual impression conveyed by the 1970 crude special effects is that Diana Prince has magically changed into a WW costume from a superior fancy dress shop.

Wonder Woman was originally a DC Comics superhero created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in print in December 1941. The comic Wonder Woman is a member of an all-female tribe of Amazons (based on the Amazons of Greek mythology) who is sent to our world as an ambassador.

Among the Amazons she is known as Princess Diana (being the daughter of Amazon queen Hippolyta); in our world she takes the secret identity of Diana Prince. This coincidental link to Diana Princess of Wales is fascinating as Diana too was an icon of power, glamour and a heroine on the global stage.

Wonder Woman’s powers include super-strength, hand-to-hand combat ability, and sometimes (during the 1980s and 1990s) flight. She also makes use of her Lasso of Truth (which forces those bound by it to tell the truth), a pair of bullet-deflecting bracelets, and an invisible plane.

Wonder Woman appeals to women as a figure of femine power, wisdom and as a role model. She stands for justice and the American Way. Hence the patriotic costume.

Men too are drawn to powerful women and there is good reason why the TV transformation of Diana Prince from ordinary woman to super hero contains an element of striptease. Lynda's appeal to men and boys in the 1970s and the resulting ratings boost, was about more than just justice and the American Way. Not to put to fine a point on it, Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman was just plain sexy.

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Republicans appear to believe that Sarah Palin too has the ability to transform herself from ordinary housewife and Hockey Mom of 5 children to President of the United States.

just like Linda Carter, Sarah has her moments of human frailty (no really). For example her rambling account of her international experience based on the fact Alaska borders with Russia, her difficulty in recounting McCain's policies or voting record or her vagueness about what newspapers or magazines she actually reads.

But there are moments, according to believing Republicans of supernatural oratory power as in her address to the Republican convention or even in her performance with Jo Biden in the so called Vice Presidential Debate. Sarah is obviously a strong woman but there is little evidence of a Lasso of Truth but there was a mythical (therefore invisible) plane she sold on Ebay.

Sarah too appeals to both men and women of a conservative views who find this ex-beauty queen at the same time both powerful and seductive yet ordinary and mortal just like them. Hence the popularity of her folksy phrases such as "Main Street not Wall Street" and "Hockey Moms and Joe Six-pack" and so on.

Funnily enough we can find out. Lynda Carter recently shared the following views in an interview about her music career that appeared in Philadelphia Magazine:

"Okay, last question. I'm sure you've seen all the comparisons in the media and among Republicans of Sarah Palin to Wonder Woman. How do you feel about that?"

"Don’t get me started. She’s the anti-Wonder Woman. She’s judgmental and dictatorial, telling people how they’ve got to live their lives. And a superior religious self-righteousness ... that’s just not what Wonder Woman is about. Hillary Clinton is a lot more like Wonder Woman than Mrs. Palin. She did it all, didn’t she?"

Later she says,

"I like John McCain. But this woman — it's anathema to me what she stands for. I think America should be very afraid. Very afraid. Separation of church and state is the one thing the creators of the Constitution did agree on — that it wasn’t to be a religious government. People should feel free to speak their minds about religion but not dictate it or put it into law."

Perhaps Sarah Palin's performances in recent interviews would have improved if she'd said, in that folksy way of hers, "Hey Katie, I'll get right back to you on that."

Sarah would then stand, do the Wonder Woman spin and appear in a flash of light in a Stars and Stripes bikini. Palin, now with a brain stuffed full of superpower wisdom as well as the ability to deflect bullets and render Katie immobile and silent with her lethal Truth Lasso, would confidently deliver her erudite reply.

McCain's entrance to the White House would then be guaranteed and it would only be a matter of time before Sarah was America's new Commander-in-Chief.

So you've been warned America - Don't let the Alaskan Ice Queen spin!