Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin
11th Governor of Alaska
Incumbent
Assumed office December 4, 2006
Lieutenant	Sean Parnell
Preceded by	Frank Murkowski
Chairperson, Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
In office 2003–2004
Preceded by	Camille Oechsli Taylor
Succeeded by	John K. Norman
Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska
In office 1996–2002
Preceded by	John Stein
Succeeded by	Dianne M. Keller
City Council Member, Wasilla, Alaska
In office 1992–1996
Personal details
Born	(1964-02-11) February 11, 1964 Sandpoint, Idaho, U.S.
Political party	Republican (1982 - Present)
Spouse	Todd Palin (since 1988)
Children	Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig
Residence(s)	Wasilla, Alaska
Alma mater	University of Idaho
Profession	Sportscaster Homemaker Politician
Signature
Website	Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
More detailed articles about Sarah Palin: Political positions  · Electoral history McCain–Palin campaign, 2008 Governorship of Alaska, 2006–present Mayoralty of Wasilla, 1996–2002 Public image

Sarah Louise Heath Palin (Template:Pron-en; born February 11, 1964) is the governor of Alaska and the Republican vice-presidential nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election.

She was on the Wasilla, Alaska, city council from 1992 to 1996 and mayor from 1996 to 2002. After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor of Alaska in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004. She was elected governor of Alaska in November 2006, becoming the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position in Alaska.

On August 29, 2008, Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain announced that he had chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate. She was nominated at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Palin is the first woman and the first Alaskan to run on the Republican party's presidential ticket.

Early life and education

Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, the third of four children of Sarah Heath (née Sheeran), a school secretary, and Charles R. Heath, a science teacher and track coach. Palin has English, German, and Irish ancestry. Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant. As a child, she would sometimes go moose hunting with her father before school, and the family regularly ran 5 km and 10 km races.

Palin attended Wasilla High School in Wasilla, then a small town, located 29 miles (47 km) north of the city of Anchorage. She was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the school and the point guard and captain of the school's girls' basketball team. She helped the team win the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds of the game, despite having an ankle stress fracture. She earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play; she was the leader of the team prayer before games.

In 1982, Palin enrolled at Hawaii Pacific College but left after her first semester. From there she transferred to North Idaho College, where she spent two semesters as a general studies major. From the community college she then transferred to the much larger University of Idaho for two semesters. During this time Palin won the Miss Wasilla Pageant beauty contest, then finished third (second runner-up) in the Miss Alaska pageant, at which she won a college scholarship and the "Miss Congeniality" award. She then left the University of Idaho and attended Matanuska-Susitna College in Alaska for one term. The next year she returned to the University of Idaho where she spent three semesters completing her Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism, graduating in 1987.

In 1988, she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska, and for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman as a sports reporter. She also helped in her husband’s commercial fishing family business.

City council of Wasilla

See also: Electoral history of Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin was elected twice to the city council of Wasilla, in 1992 and 1995. Palin says she entered politics because she was concerned that revenue from a new Wasilla sales tax would not be spent wisely.

She ran for Wasilla city council in 1992, at age 28, against John Hartrick, a local telephone company worker, on a promise to bring "my progressive, competitive attitude" to government. She won 530 votes to John Hartrick’s 310. On the council, she successfully opposed a measure to curtail the hours at Wasilla's bars by two hours, which surprised Hartrick because she was then a member of a church that advocated abstinence from alcohol.

After serving on the city council for three years, she ran for reelection against R’nita Rogers in 1995, winning 413 votes to 185 for Rogers. According to Laura Chase of Wasilla, Palin as city councilwoman mentioned to her colleagues in 1995 that she saw the book Daddy's Roommate in the library and did not think it belonged there. According to the City of Wasilla Library records, there was never a request for the library to remove the book.

Palin did not complete her second term on the city council because she ran for mayor in 1996. Throughout her tenure on the city council and the rest of her career, Palin has been a registered Republican.

Mayor of Wasilla

Main article: Mayoralty of Sarah Palin

Palin served two terms (1996–2002) as mayor of Wasilla. At the conclusion of Palin's tenure as mayor in 2002, the town had about 6,300 residents, and it is now the fifth-largest population center in the state.

In 1996, Palin defeated three-term incumbent mayor John Stein, on a platform targeting wasteful spending and high taxes and introducing abortion, gun rights, and term limits as campaign issues. Although the election was a nonpartisan blanket primary, the state Republican Party ran advertisements on her behalf.

First term

Shortly after taking office in October 1996, Palin eliminated the position of museum director and asked for updated resumes and resignation letters from top officials, including the police chief, public works director, finance director and librarian. Palin stated this request was to find out their intentions and whether they supported her. She temporarily required department heads to get her approval before talking to reporters, saying that they first needed to become acquainted with her administration's policies. She created the position of city administrator, and reduced her own $68,000 salary by 10%, though raises mandated by the city council erased the cut over the next three years.

According to city librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, Palin inquired in October 1996 as to whether Emmons would object to library censorship. Palin later spoke publicly about the issue, saying she had no particular books or other material in mind for removal. No books were removed from the library. Emmons recalls Palin raising the possibility of people circling the library in protest, to which Emmons replied that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would get involved.

Palin fired Emmons on January 30, 1997. This was the same day that Palin gave a similar letter to Police Chief Stambaugh; Emmons as well as Stambaugh had publicly supported Palin's defeated mayoral opponent, John Stein. Palin rescinded the firing of Emmons the next day after meeting with her and after expressions of public support for Emmons. Palin stated that her concerns had been alleviated when Emmons agreed to support Palin's plan to merge the town's library and museum operations.

Palin's January 30, 1997 letter to Police Chief Stambaugh stated: "I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the city of Wasilla..." Stambaugh claimed that his firing was retaliation for his opposition to letting residents carry concealed weapons and his opposition to letting bars stay open late at night, citing Palin's statement that the National Rifle Association did not like him. Stambaugh filed a lawsuit, but the case was dismissed; the court concluded the mayor had the right to fire city employees for nearly any reason, including a political one.

Despite a turbulent first year, by the end of the term Palin had gained broad favor with Wasilla voters. She kept a jar with the names of Wasilla residents on her desk, and once a week she pulled a name from it and picked up the phone; she would ask: "How's the city doing?" Using income generated by a 2% sales tax that was enacted before she was on the city council, Palin cut property taxes by 75% and eliminated personal property and business inventory taxes. Tapping municipal bonds, she made improvements to the roads and sewers and increased funding to the Police Department. She also oversaw new bike paths and procured funding for storm-water treatment to protect freshwater resources. At the same time she reduced spending on the town museum and blocked construction of a new library and city hall. Palin ran for re-election against Stein in 1999 and won; with a majority of 74%. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

Second term

During her second term as mayor, Palin introduced a ballot measure proposing the construction of a municipal sports center to be financed by a 0.5% sales tax increase. The $14.7 million Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex was built on time and under budget, but the city spent an additional $1.3 million because of an eminent domain lawsuit caused by the failure to obtain clear title to the property before beginning construction. The city's long-term debt grew from approximately $1 million to $25 million through voter-approved indebtedness of $15 million for the sports complex, $5.5 million for street projects, and $3 million for water improvement projects. A city council member defended the spending increases as being caused by the city's growth during that time.

She also hired the Anchorage-based lobbying firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh to lobby for earmarks for Wasilla. The effort was led by Steven Silver, a former chief of staff for Senator Ted Stevens, and it secured nearly $27 million in funds. The earmarks included $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project linking Wasilla and the ski resort community of Girdwood. Earmark requests that Palin requested were criticized by Senator John McCain on three occasions, when she was mayor of Wasilla.

Term limits prevented Palin from running for a third term as mayor in 2002.

Post-mayoral years

In 2002, Palin ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a five-way Republican primary. The Republican ticket of U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski and Leman won the November 2002 election. When Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in December 2002 to become governor, he considered appointing Palin to replace him in the Senate, but instead chose his daughter, Lisa Murkowski, who was then an Alaska state representative.

Governor Murkowski appointed Palin to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She chaired the Commission beginning in 2003, and served as Ethics Supervisor. Palin resigned in January 2004, protesting what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Republican members.

After resigning, Palin filed a formal complaint against Oil and Gas Conservation Commissioner Randy Ruedrich, also the chair of the state Republican Party, accusing him of doing work for the party on public time and of working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating. She also filed a complaint against Gregg Renkes, a former Alaska Attorney General, accusing him of having a financial conflict of interest in negotiating a coal exporting trade agreement, while Renkes was the subject of investigation and after records suggesting a possible conflict of interest had been released to the public. Ruedrich and Renkes both resigned and Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.

From 2003 to June 2005, Palin served as one of three directors of "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group designed to provide political training for Republican women in Alaska. In 2004, Palin told the Anchorage Daily News that she had decided not to run for the U.S. Senate that year, against the Republican incumbent, Lisa Murkowski, because her teenage son opposed it. Palin said "How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. Senator?"

Governor of Alaska

Main article: Governorship of Sarah Palin

Palin in Kuwait visiting soldiers of the Alaska National Guard, July 24, 2007.

In 2006, running on a clean-government platform, Palin defeated incumbent Governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Her running mate was State Senator Sean Parnell. Alaska Senator Ted Stevens gave a late endorsement to Palin and filmed a television commercial with her during the gubernatorial campaign.

Despite spending less than her Democratic opponent, she won the gubernatorial election in November, defeating former governor Tony Knowles 48.3% to 40.9%. Palin became Alaska's first female governor and at age 42, the youngest governor in Alaskan history. She is the state's first governor to have been born after Alaska achieved U.S. statehood, and the first not to be inaugurated in Juneau; she chose to have the ceremony held in Fairbanks instead. She took office on December 4, 2006 and has been very popular with Alaska voters. Polls taken in 2007 early in her term showed her with a 93% and 89% popularity among all voters. A poll taken in September 2008 shows her popularity at 82%. Palin declared that top priorities of her administration would be resource development, education and workforce development, public health and safety, and transportation and infrastructure development.

Palin had championed ethics reform throughout her election campaign. Her first legislative action after taking office was to push for a bipartisan ethics reform bill. She signed the resulting legislation in July 2007, calling it a "first step" declaring that she remains determined to clean up Alaska politics.

Lt. Col. David Cogdall helps Governor Palin test out the Engagement Skills Trainer at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, July 24, 2007.

Palin has sometimes broken with the state Republican establishment. For example, she endorsed Sean Parnell's bid to unseat the state's longtime at-large U.S. Representative, Don Young. Palin has publicly challenged Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the ongoing federal investigation into his financial dealings, though the Associated Press wrote that Palin's record "undermine[s] arguments that Palin has broken from Alaska's Republican machine, including Stevens." Shortly before his July 2008 indictment, she held a joint news conference with Stevens, described by The Washington Post as being "to make clear she had not abandoned him politically."

Palin promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), where such development has been the subject of a national debate. In March 2007, Palin put forward an Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) to encourage building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope. In January 2008, Palin announced that TransCanada Corporation was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant. In August 2008, Palin signed a bill awarding TransCanada Pipelines $500 million in seed money and a license to build and operate the $26 billion pipeline to transport gas from the North Slope to the Lower 48 through Canada.

In 2006, Palin obtained a passport and in 2007 traveled for the first time outside of North America on a trip to Kuwait. There she visited the Khabari Alawazem Crossing at the Kuwait–Iraq border and met with members of the Alaska National Guard at several bases. On her return trip to the U.S., she visited injured soldiers in Germany.

According to the New York Times, Palin blurred the line between government and personal grievance on multiple occasions. According to USA Today, Palin teamed with Democrats in the Legislature to pursue a populist agenda that toughened ethics rules, while taking few steps to advance culturally conservative causes.

Budget, spending and federal funds

Palin with Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell, December 4, 2006.

In June 2007, Palin signed a record $6.6 billion operating budget into law. At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history. The $237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects, and reduced the construction budget to $1.6 billion. In 2008 Palin vetoed $286 million and cutting or reducing funding for 350 projects from the FY09 capital budget.

Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet, a purchase made by the Murkowski administration for $2.7 million in 2005 against the wishes of the legislature. In August 2007, the jet was listed on eBay, but the sale fell through, and the plane was later sold for $2.1 million through a private brokerage firm. Palin lives in Juneau during the legislative session and lives in Wasilla and works out of offices in Anchorage the rest of the year. Since the office in Anchorage is far from Juneau, while she works there she is legally entitled to a $58 per diem travel allowance, which she has taken (a total of $16,951), and to reimbursement for hotels, which she has not, choosing instead to drive about 50 miles to her home in Wasilla. She also chose not to use the former governor's private chef. In response to criticism for taking the per diem, and for $43,490 in travel expenses for the the times her family accompanied her on state business, the governor's staffers said that these practices were in line with state policy, that Palin's gubernatorial expenses are 80% below those of her predecessor, Frank Murkowski, and that "many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of 'state business' with the party extending the invitation."

Federal funding

In her State of the State Address on January 17, 2008, Palin declared that it was time for Alaska to "grow up" and not continue to rely on federal government earmarks. Alaska's federal congressional representatives cut back on pork-barrel project requests during Palin's time as governor. As of 2008, Alaska was still the largest per-capita recipient of federal earmarks, requesting nearly $750 million in special federal spending over two years and obtaining $295 per Alaska resident from the federal government.

Alaska State revenues doubled to $10 billion in 2008, and there is no sales tax or income tax. For the 2009 budget, Palin gave a list of 31 proposed federal earmarks or requests for funding, totaling $197 million, to Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. During 2008, Palin’s increasing aversion to federal earmarks was the leading source of friction between herself and the state's congressional delegation; according to her staff, she has requested $95 million to $150 million fewer earmarks or funding requests during each of her years in office than her predecessor Frank Murkowski requested in his last year.

Bridge controversy

See also: Gravina Island Bridge and Knik Arm Bridge

In September 2006, gubernatorial candidate Sarah Palin visited Ketchikan and expressed support for the bridge.

Two Alaskan bridge proposals that both at one time received some support from Palin have become symbols of federal pork barrel spending, and they both faced strong criticism in Congress during the administration of her predecessor Frank Murkowski. Those two bridges are the Gravina Island Bridge connecting Ketchikan to Gravina Island (population 50), where its airport lies and Knik Arm Bridge. The nickname "Bridge(s) to Nowhere" has been used for the Gravina Island Bridge alone or, more rarely, both bridges.

In 2005, before she became Governor, the $442 million earmark to build the two bridges was included in an early version of an omnibus spending bill for 2006, but the earmark generated strong criticism in Congress and was stripped from the bill before final passage in November 2005. Congress instead gave the transportation money to Alaska with no strings attached. In 2006, Palin ran for governor with a "build-the-bridge" plank in her platform, criticizing "spinmeisters" for insulting local residents by calling them "nowhere" and urging speedy work on the two bridges "while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."

Eight months after becoming Governor, Palin issued a press release remarking that Congress had "little interest in spending any more money" on the Gravina Bridge bridge based on what she called "inaccurate portrayals of the projects." In light of the fact that the budget for the bridge was greater than the congressional earmarks, Palin expressed unwillingness to provide state funding to cover the difference; Palin directed Alaskan officials to look for what she called "fiscally responsible alternatives". Alaska will not return any of the $442 million originally earmarked for the two bridges to the federal government and is spending a portion of the funding, $25 million, on a Gravina Island road to the place where the bridge would have gone, expressly so that the federal money will not have to be returned. Palin continued to support funding the Knik Arm Bridge until June 2008 when she ordered a review of its costs and prospects.

Virtually every media group in the US, says the Sydney Morning Herald, has noted that Palin changed her position regarding the bridges, and concluded that she exaggerated her claim that she stopped the proposals from going through. According to the Los Angeles Times for instance, while seeking votes for her governorship race, Palin told Ketchikan residents that she backed the "bridge to nowhere"; as governor, she spent the money elsewhere and moved ahead with a $26-million road to the nonexistent bridge.

Gas pipeline

See also: Alaska Gas Pipeline

In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope. This negated a deal by the previous governor to grant the contract to a coalition including BP. The bill was approved with only a single dissenting vote. and in June, Palin signed it into law. On January 5, 2008, Palin announced that a Canadian company, TransCanada Corporation, was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant. In August 2008, Palin signed a bill into law giving the state of Alaska authority to award TransCanada Pipelines $500 million in seed money and a license to build and operate the $26-billion pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Continental United States through Canada.

Public Safety Commissioner dismissal

Main article: Alaska Public Safety Commissioner dismissal

On July 11, 2008, Sarah Palin dismissed Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, citing performance-related issues, such as not being "a team player on budgeting issues." Monegan said that he had resisted subtle but persistent pressure from the Governor, her husband, and her staff to fire Palin’s ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten; Trooper Wooten was involved in a child custody battle with Palin’s sister that included an alleged death threat against Palin's father. Monegan told the Palins that there was nothing he could do because the matter was closed. Monegan initially said he was not certain why he was dismissed but that his refusal to fire Wooten could have been connected, and he later asserted that the dispute over Wooten was a major reason for his firing. Palin stated on July 17 that Monegan was not pressured to fire Wooten, or dismissed for not doing so.

On August 1, the Alaska Legislature hired an investigator to review the Monegan dismissal; the atmosphere was bipartisan and Palin cooperated with the investigation. After ordering her own internal investigation, Palin acknowledged on August 13 that "pressure could have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware of it." She also apologized to Alaskans for the distraction. Palin announced that officials had contacted Monegan or his staff about two dozen times regarding Wooten, that she had only known about some of those contacts, that many of those contacts were appropriate, and that she had not fired Monegan because of Wooten, who remained employed as a state trooper. She placed an aide on paid leave as a result of one tape-recorded contact.

Several weeks after the start of what is now commonly referred to as "troopergate" in the media, Palin was chosen as McCain's running mate, there was talk in the legislature of damage to her administration, subpoenas were issued, and Palin stopped cooperating. On September 1, Palin asked the legislature to drop its investigation, saying that the state Personnel Board had jurisdiction over ethics issues. Palin also asked the Board to review the matter. On September 5, legislators expedited their investigation, setting an October 10 completion date. On September 12, legislators voted to subpoena the Governor's husband, which he subsequently deemed "illegitimate". On September 15, Palin filed arguments before the Personnel Board. Monegan accused the Governor of "not telling the truth" on national television about why he was fired. On September 16, the state's Attorney General announced that state employees would disobey subpoenas, unless they are reconfirmed by a full vote of the legislature.

Predator Control

See also: Palin's Predator Control policy

In 2007, Palin supported the Alaska Department of Fish and Game policy allowing the hunting of wolves from helicopters as part of a predator control program intended to increase moose populations. In March 2007, Palin's office announced that a bounty of $150 per wolf would be paid to the 180 volunteer pilots and gunners, to offset fuel costs. Wildlife activists sued the state, and a state judge declared the bounty illegal on the basis that a bounty would have to be offered by the Board of Game and not by the Department of Fish and Game.

2008 Vice-presidential campaign

Main article: John McCain presidential campaign, 2008; see also: 2008 Republican Vice Presidential Candidates

Palin addresses the 2008 Republican National Convention

On August 29, 2008, in Dayton, Ohio, Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, announced that he had chosen Palin as his running mate. McCain met Palin in a February National Governors Association, and it is reported that she made a favorable impression on McCain. He called Palin on August 24 to discuss the possibility of having her join him on the ticket. On August 27, Palin visited McCain's vacation home near Sedona, Arizona, where she was offered the position of vice-presidential candidate. Palin was the only prospective running mate who had a face-to-face interview with McCain to discuss joining the ticket that week. Nonetheless, Palin's selection was a surprise to many as speculation had centered on other candidates, such as Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, United States Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, and former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.

Palin is the second woman to run on a major U.S. party ticket. The first was Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1984, who ran with former vice-president Walter Mondale. On September 3, 2008, Palin delivered a 40-minute acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention that was watched by more than 40 million viewers and was well-received by the crowd.

In her nomination acceptance speech and on the campaign trail, Palin has often said: "I told the Congress 'thanks, but no thanks,' for that Bridge to Nowhere." Although Palin was originally a main proponent of the Gravina Island Bridge, McCain-Palin television advertisements claim Palin "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere". These claims have been widely questioned or described as misleading in several newspapers across the political spectrum. Newsweek remarked: "Now she talks as if she always opposed the funding."

The Palins and McCains in Fairfax, Virginia, September 2008.

Palin is scheduled to participate in a vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden on October 2, 2008. The election is set for November 4, 2008.

On September 18, 2008, one of her two private Yahoo! Mail accounts was hacked by a 4chan user. who used Palin's password reset challenge question to change her password. The hacker posted screenshots from within the account to Wikileaks; these screenshots were further distributed by blogs including Gawker.com. The account was subsequently locked out by Yahoo!. The FBI and Secret Service have since begun a joint investigation into the incident.

Reception

See also: Reaction to 2008 Vice Presidential nomination of Sarah Palin and Public image of Sarah Palin

A series of polls suggested that Palin gave a major boost to John McCain's campaign and excited the Republican base. The McCain campaign reversed its poll deficit, and Palin may have boosted support among white mothers. A WSJ/NBC News poll taken on September 9 indicated that 34% of respondents were more likely to vote for McCain as a result of the Palin pick, while 25% were less likely. McCain chose Palin in part due to her potential to rally Christian conservatives behind his campaign.

Sarah Palin signing an autograph at a John McCain/Sarah Palin campaign rally in O'Fallon, Missouri

Since Palin was largely unknown outside of Alaska prior to her selection by McCain, her personal life, positions, and political record became the focus of intense media attention and scrutiny. Some Republicans felt that Palin was being subjected to unreasonable media coverage, a sentiment referenced by Palin in her acceptance speech. Mark Penn, a former top advisor to the Hillary Clinton campaign, also questioned the coverage and said the media had "growing credibility problems." A poll found that slightly more than half of Americans believed that the media was "trying to hurt" Palin with negative coverage.

Polls conducted immediately after the speech found that Palin was viewed favorably by a majority of respondents. Palin was also a draw with Catholic voters. However, followup polling 2 weeks after the Republican convention found that the main enduring effect of Palin's selection had been to excite the Republican base.

Palin appeared on the covers of Newsweek and Time, which had been critical of the level of media access to Palin allowed by the McCain campaign. Her first interview with the press, with Charles Gibson of ABC News, aired on September 12. In the interview, Palin was asked about her experience, national security, Iraq and the Bush Doctrine.

Political positions

Main article: Political positions of Sarah Palin

Palin on June 2, 2007 in Dillingham, Alaska.

Palin has described the Republican Party platform as "the right agenda for America," because of its "respect for equality and respect for life and an acknowledgment that it is individual Americans and American families who can make better decisions for ourselves than government can ever make for us," and has stated that "individual freedom and independence is extremely important to me and that's why I'm a Republican."

Palin is a social conservative. A lifetime member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), Palin believes the right to bear arms includes handgun possession, and has advocated gun safety education for youth. She supports capital punishment. Palin supports allowing the discussion of creationism in public schools, but says it does not have to be part of the curriculum. Palin opposes same-sex marriage and supported a non-binding referendum for an Alaskan constitutional amendment to deny state health benefits to same-sex couples. Palin has called herself "as pro-life as any candidate can be" and has called abortion an "atrocity." Palin supports a constitutional amendment to make abortion illegal in all cases, including rape and incest, except where there has been "a doctor's determination that the mother's life would end if the pregnancy continued." She is also a member of Feminists for Life. She supports sex education that promotes abstinence and that also discusses birth control.

Palin has promoted oil and natural gas resource exploration in Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), and initiated a lawsuit over the federal listing of the polar bear and Cook Inlet beluga whale as endangered specie. Palin has stated in the past that she does not believe that global warming is primarily human-caused and has further clarified her position saying in September 2008 that "man's activities certainly can be contributing to the issue" and that "John McCain and I agree that we gotta do something about it."

Regarding foreign policy, Palin supports preemptive military action in the face of an imminent threat, supports US military operations in Pakistan. She declined to give a yes or no answer regarding whether U.S. military forces should make cross-border attacks into Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government. She supports NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, and affirms that if Russia invaded a NATO treaty member the United States would meet its treaty obligations and go to war with Russia.

Personal life

See also: Public image of Sarah Palin

In 1988, Sarah Heath eloped to marry Todd Palin, her high-school boyfriend. Todd Palin works for the oil company BP as an oil-field production operator and owns a commercial fishing business. The family lives in Wasilla.

Palin family members at the announcement of Palin's vice-presidential selection, August 29, 2008. From left: Todd, Piper, Willow, Bristol, and Trig.

The Palins have five children: sons Track (b. 1989) and Trig (b. 2008), and daughters Bristol (b. 1990), Willow (b. 1995), and Piper (b. 2001). Track enlisted in the U.S. Army on September 11, 2007, and subsequently was assigned to an infantry brigade. He and his unit deployed to Iraq in September 2008, for 12 months. On September 1, 2008, Palin announced that Bristol was five months pregnant and intends to keep the baby and marry the father of the child. Palin's youngest child, Trig, has Down syndrome, diagnosed prenatally.

Palin was born into a Catholic family. When she was 4 years old, her family joined the Wasilla Assembly of God, which belongs to a Pentecostal association of churches. Palin attended the Wasilla Assembly of God until age 38. When in Juneau, she attends the Juneau Christian Center. Her current home church is the Wasilla Bible Church, an independent congregation. Palin described herself in an interview as a "Bible-believing" Christian. After the Republican National Convention, the McCain campaign told CNN that Palin "doesn't consider herself Pentecostal."

Palin has stated that she would not allow her personal religious beliefs to dictate her political positions, but she has come under scrutiny in the press for comments made at a commencement address to a graduating class of ministry students at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in June 2008. In that address, Palin stated, "Pray... for this country, that our leaders... are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan". Critics have argued that she was justifying the Iraq war as part of God's plan, while Palin has explained that she was referring to Abraham Lincoln's statement, "let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God's side."

References

• Johnson, Kaylene (2008), Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down, Epicenter Press, ISBN 0979047080.

External links

• Official Campaign Website for McCain/Palin 2008
• Alaska Office of Governor Sarah Palin
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Palin 2006 campaign contributions from Follow the Money
• Palin/Parnell 2006 campaign contributions from Follow the Money
• Ongoing news and commentary from The Anchorage Daily News
• Ongoing news and commentary from The New York Times
• Sarah Palin rumor control from Snopes
• Republican Convention Spin and Sliming Palin rumor control from FactCheck.org
• Template:Dmoz
• Video: Meet Sarah Palin - requires Flash Player and broadband connection
• Charlie Gibson Interviews Sarah Palin ABC News, September 2008
• First chapterSarah:How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down

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