[Editor's Note] One of our readers sent this to the blog and I will post without comment (for now). We do need to get to know Sarah and I hope you can either watch or DVR her speech at 10PM Eastern on Fox News.

Palin, Sarah (1964- )
Biography
 
In The News:   Republican presumptive presidential nominee John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate on Friday (Aug. 29, 2008).  McCain formally introduced Palin during a noon campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio.

Sarah Palin will be the first female vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party when she is formally nominated Sept. 3 at the party's convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Palin, now in her first term as governor, is the first woman and the youngest person to hold the state's top political job.

Biography:   Sarah Louise Heath Palin was born February 11, 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho.

She moved to Alaska at the age of three months when her parents came to teach school in Skagway.   Sarah Palin’s father, Charles, was a science teacher and track coach.

Sarah Palin grew up in the small town of Wasilla, about 40 miles north of Anchorage.   In 1982, she played on Wasilla High School’s state champion girls’ basketball team, picking up the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" for her intense playing style.

After she graduated from Wasilla High School, Sarah Palin wore the crown of Miss Wasilla in 1984 and was the runner-up in the Miss Alaska contest. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Idaho in 1987.   She also became a television sports reporter in Anchorage.

Palin married her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin, on August 29, 1988, and helped run his family’s commercial fishing business.  In 1986, while they were still dating, Todd was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, according to the McCain campaign.

She entered politics in 1992, winning a seat on the Wasilla City Council by opposing tax hikes.   Four years later, she was elected mayor of Wasilla, one of Alaska’s fastest-growing communities, by knocking off a three-term incumbent.

Palin ran her first statewide campaign in 2002 in a bid for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.   She lost by fewer than 2,000 votes.

Governor Frank Murkowski appointed Sarah Palin as Ethics Commissioner on the state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in 2003.   She resigned a year later in protest over what she perceived to be the “lack of ethics” of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders including the Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich.

In 2006, Palin won the Republican primary for Governor, defeating Murkowski. She went on to win the general election in November 2006 by defeating former Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election, 49 percent to 41 percent.

With an emphasis on ethics and openness in government, Palin's administration has focused on education, public safety and transportation. She is also unabashedly pro life.

While very popular, an independent investigator hired by a legislative panel is looking into whether Governor Palin does abused her power when she fired a public safety commissioner.  Lawmakers say they want to know whether Palin was angry at the commissioner for not firing an Alaska state trooper who went through a messy divorce and ongoing child custody battles with Palin's sister.  Palin has retained a private attorney to represent her in the case.

Palin and her husband Todd, a three-time winner of the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race, have five children:  Bristol (who is 17-years-old and five months pregnant), Willow, Piper, Track (who is in the U.S. Army and will be deployed to Iraq in September 2008) and Trig (who was born in April 2008 with Down syndrome).

An outdoors enthusiast, she is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. She hunts, eats moose hamburger and rides snowmobiles.  Palin once received a citation for fishing without a license.

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