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Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's unfolding domestic drama is so eye-popping it's a wonder we can focus at all on more important matters (and they would be what?) in what has become one of the most riveting presidential races in modern times.

Her story has also predictably ignited a new battle in the Mommy Wars.

Some people - well, lots of people, many of them moms - are outraged that Ms. Palin would even think of running for the U.S. vice-presidency in her situation.

Think of it: You're the 44-year-old governor of Alaska and your youngest child was born 4½ months ago with Down syndrome. (You went back to work three days later.)

Your 17-year-old daughter is pregnant by a husky young hockey star who describes himself on Facebook as "A fuckin redneck." You also have a 14-year-old daughter, a seven-year-old daughter and, oh yes, your 19-year-old son is shipping off to Iraq.

So when John McCain asks you to be his running mate, do you sigh deeply (it's the chance of a lifetime and one that will never come again) but say: Sorry, John, I've got my hands rather full at the moment?

Not if you're Sarah Palin.

No wonder the mommybloggers are going crazy. "On being selfish: Where is the line?" posted one blogger about Ms. Palin's decision to go back to work so soon.

Now they are all asking how Mr. McCain's running mate could possibly combine motherhood and her complex family life with running in the presidential race.

The number of comments (both positive and negative) in The New York Times about what the newspaper calls Mommy Wars: Special Campaign Edition, had reached 950 the last time I looked and all of them were juicy.

"You can juggle a BlackBerry and a breast pump in a lot of jobs, but not in the vice-presidency," said one mother who supports Democratic nominee Barack Obama for president.

Personally, I'm always careful about slagging other mothers and their choices. The Mommy Wars are so tedious. If I can manage to hold a demanding job and raise happy, productive kids, what business is it of anyone else's? And if you stay home because you don't want to miss a minute of your kids' lives, why should I care or criticize? And if our kids screw up, which they do regularly in both kinds of arrangements, why are we blaming mom?

But in Ms. Palin's case, her decision to accept the coming vice-presidential nod nomination is of even more interest because her family is unusually challenged at the moment.

My friends with special needs children tell me it's a steep learning curve indeed, one that requires parents to first find out everything they can about their baby's condition and then marshal and monitor all the resources needed to help them flourish.

It's a staggering amount of work.

So let's not kid ourselves here. Ms. Palin has obviously ceded this particular challenge, because it's hard to believe that she could stay on top of it and run for vice-president.

On the other hand, one mother told me that Down syndrome children can be easier to care for than average babies in the early months, so with the help of an extended family, an onboard husband and, as she has already pointed out, teenage daughters who help, she may have it under control.

The pregnant teen is a more disturbing matter. Bristol Palin, judging by the painful look on her face during the first few photo ops, couldn't possibly wish to be in the limelight right now, and may not even have had much of a choice about whether to have the baby or not, given her mother's political beliefs.

So even if she gamely gave her mom the go-ahead, the decision to sacrifice her child to the spotlight - even if the furor will soon die down - is troubling. But life is messy, time is short, and people with outsized ambitions or political passions reach, sometimes ruthlessly, for the top.

Still, I don't think any of us can decide whether Ms. Palin is a good mother or a neglectful one on the evidence we've been given. Her children may be wonderful and secure - and anyone who thinks being in the same house as your teenager 24 hours a day will prevent her from getting pregnant is living in a dream world. (That's why rec rooms and bedroom doors were invented.)

But we can easily conclude she is no ordinary mother.

Only exceptionally driven, well-organized women who know how to delegate can pull off raising five children with a political career that now is soaring to the top.

Ms. Palin is not shy about using her family life in interviews to make points, so I think the discussion of how she runs it is well within the bounds of fair discussion.

But luckily we don't have to judge Ms. Palin on her mothering when there are her political beliefs to consider (a politician who supports abstinence-only education in the schools is more responsible for teen pregnancy, I think, than a politician who pushes for birth control and comprehensive sex ed), the amount of experience she's had to qualify her for the vice-presidential slot and her political background, which seems to contain a few more surprises than the McCain camp bargained for.

If all the rumours circulating about Ms. Palin are true, she may be the shortest-lived vice-presidential candidate in political history.

But she's already got women everywhere sitting up and taking notice. Which is what the Republicans wanted. Only not quite like this.