McCain Picks Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for Vice President

2008-08-29 16:48:35 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Top Stories)

Fort Worth, TX (WiredPRNews.com)—One day after the historic nomination of Illinois Senator Barak Obama as the Democrat party nominee for president, Republican presidential candidate John McCain made history by selecting the party’s first female candidate for vice president.

Palin, 44, is the youngest governor in the union. She won the 49th state’s governorship in 2006, after first getting into politics in 1992 when she won a city council seat in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.

A fiscal conservative, Palin fills the niche that McCain lacks in that she is young and female. Also known for being tough on corruption inside and outsider of her own party, Palin has made a name for herself as a fiscal conservative in her brief term as Alaska’s governor.

The former beauty queen and star basketball player, whose fierce competitiveness earned her the nickname ‘Sarah Barracuda,’ Palin led her underdog Wasilla High School basketball team to the state championship in 1982. Palin was born in Idaho but raised in the Anchorage suburb of Wasilla when her parents moved to Alaska when she was three months old.

Palin studied journalism and political science at the University of Idaho and graduated in 1987, according to an August 29 FoxNews.com article. The article added that she “eloped with her high school boyfriend, Todd Palin, in 1988 to save money on an expensive wedding” and also helped in her husband’s family’s commercial fishing business and appeared occasionally as a television sportscaster.

Sarah and Todd Palin have two boys, Track, 19, and Trig, 4 months, and three daughters, Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7, according to a FoxNews.com report. Palin gave birth to Trig, who has Down syndrome, in April and returned to work three days later. Her oldest son, Track, enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11. 2007.

Palin is also the most popular governor in all 50 states with an approval rating above 90%, according to a June 2008 RealClearPolitics.com article.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/06/the_vp_case_for_gov_sarah_pali.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080829/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_veepstakes

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/29/mccain-to-name-running-mate-on-friday/