Much has been made of the recent Sarah Palin and Kate Gosslin camping trip. Two of the most intriguing matriarchs on the reality television circuit today, each seeming to define modern American motherhood in the popular culture, thrown together for a weekend spent in the great outdoors – is there a scenario with more potential for petty melodrama of the kind that sends ratings soaring?

And true to form, these two American archetypes fully hammed it up for the cameras, according to the public personas they present and, more importantly, are perceived to represent. Thus, Sarah Palin, self-described “grizzly mom” with camping tent and other survival tools, is having the time of her life playing exactly the kind of tough yet still feminine frontierswoman of myth that has become her role. Likewise, too, Kate Gosslin worrying about her nails and finding the chill and the dark of a night out in the woods to be utterly pointless.

In fact, Kate gets so upset that she storms out of her camping tent and wants out – now. She demands to be taken home the very instant; demands it of the television network camera crew that’s taping the drama and demands it, most dramatically, of her kids – who, it turns out, actually finds the whole adventure fun. When one protests the sudden cancellation, Kate tells her curtly that if she stays she’s no longer a Gosslin but a Palin.

Not skipping a beat herself, Sarah later goes on to feign sympathy via a Twitter message that tries to link Kate’s whiny ways with big-city liberalism. This, of course, has the blogosphere debating the old conservative canard about liberalism and easy living, all with the effect of keeping Sarah’s name in the public limelight.

The producer who managed to coax Kate Gosslin into a camping tent deserves an Emmy!