Palin is a self-described "hockey mom" and mother of five. She hunts, goes ice fishing, eats mooseburgers, rides snowmobiles, has run a marathon, and owns a floatplane.
According to the New York Times, Palin "appears to have traveled very little outside the United States" and in July 2007 "had to get a passport before she visited members of the Alaska National Guard" in Kuwait. She also traveled to Germany to visit wounded soldiers. Her spokesman Ben Porritt stated that she has also visited Canada.
Religion
Palin was originally baptized as a Roman Catholic, but her parents switched to the Wasilla Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church, where she was rebaptized at age 12 or 13. When she is in the capital, she attends Juneau Christian Center, another Assemblies of God church. Her current home church in Wasilla is The Wasilla Bible Church, an independent congregation. Initial reports described her as the first Pentecostal ever named to a major party's presidential ticket; Palin has described herself as a "Bible-believing Christian" who attends a non-denominational church. The National Catholic Reporter described her as a "post-denominational" Christian.
Family
Palin family members at the announcement of Palin's vice presidential selection, August 29, 2008. From left: Todd, Piper, Willow, Bristol, and Trig.Sarah Palin eloped with her high-school boyfriend, Todd Palin, on August 29, 1988, when she was 24 years old. Todd works for BP as an oil-field production operator and owns a commercial fishing business. The family lives in Wasilla.
The couple have five children: sons Track (born 1989) and Trig (born 2008), and daughters Bristol (born 1990), Willow (born 1995), and Piper (born 2001).[109] Todd and Track Palin are registered to vote as independents ("undeclared"), though Todd was registered with the Alaskan Independence Party until 2002. Track Palin enlisted in the U.S. Army on September 11, 2007, subsequently joining an infantry brigade. Palin's youngest child, Trig, has Down syndrome, diagnosed prenatally.
Governor Palin announced on September 1, 2008, that her daughter Bristol was five months pregnant and intended to keep the baby and marry the father of her child, 17-year-old Levi Johnston. Bristol Palin is a senior at Wasilla High School. According to Wasilla High School Principal Dwight Probasco, Levi Johnston plays on the school's hockey team but is home-schooled and does not attend the school.
The McCain-Palin campaign stated that John McCain was aware of her daughter's pregnancy, but that it did not affect his choice. Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama and his campaign staff declared the subject "off limits" in the coming campaign.
Palin was born Sarah Louise Heath 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.[6] Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant.[6] As a child, she would sometimes go moose hunting with her father before school, and the family regularly ran 5K and 10K races.
Palin attended Wasilla High School in Wasilla, Alaska, where she was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the school, and the point guard and captain of the school's basketball team.[6] 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 at the time.[6] She earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play and was the leader of team prayer before games.
In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla beauty contest (playing the flute),[7][8] then finished second in the Miss Alaska pageant,[9] at which she won a college scholarship and the "Miss Congeniality" award.
Palin attended Hawaii Pacific College—now known as Hawaii Pacific University—in Honolulu for a semester in 1982, majoring in Business Administration. She transferred in 1983 to North Idaho College.[10] In 1987,[11] Palin received a Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho, where she also minored in political science.
In 1988, she worked briefly as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska.[14] She also helped out in her husband’s family commercial fishing business.
Early political career
Wasilla is a city of 6,715 located 42 miles north of the port of city of Anchorage. Palin began her political career in 1992, when she ran for a three-year term on the Wasilla city council, supporting a controversial new sales tax and advocating "a safer, more progressive Wasilla." She won, and won re-election to a second three-year term in the 1995 election.
In 1996, Palin challenged and defeated incumbent John Stein for the non-partisan office of mayor, a full-time, $68,000-a-year job.[17] In the campaign, she criticized Stein for what she called wasteful spending and high taxes,[6] and highlighted her pro-life stance, her church work, and her membership in the National Rifle Association.
In October 1996, she asked the Wasilla police chief, librarian, public works director and finance director to resign, and she instituted a policy requiring department heads to get her approval before talking to reporters.[19] In January 1997, Palin fired the police chief and the town librarian. Palin said in a letter that she wanted a change because she believed the two did not fully support her administration.[21] The chief filed a lawsuit; but a court dismissed it, finding that Palin had the right to fire city employees for political reasons. According to Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who observed City Council, Palin found certain book titles "somehow morally or socially objectionable." Palin rehired the librarian after town residents made a strong show of support.
As mayor, Palin reduced the mayoral salary, reduced property taxes by 40 percent. She also increased the city sales tax to pay for a new indoor ice rink and sports complex, which eventually went over budget due to an eminent domain lawsuit. At this time, state Republican leaders began grooming her for higher office. She ran for re-election against Stein in 1999 and was returned to office, getting over three times as many votes as he. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.
During her second three-year term as mayor, Palin hired the Anchorage-based lobbying firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh to lobby for federal money 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 earmarked 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.
In 2002, term limits prevented Palin from running for a third term as mayor. Her stepmother-in-law, Faye Palin, ran for the office but lost the election to Dianne Keller after Sarah Palin endorsed Keller, her cousin.
Activities from 2002 to 2005
In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a five-way race in the Republican primary.
After Frank Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in mid-term to become governor, he considered appointing Palin to replace him in the Senate, but instead chose his daughter, Alaska state representative Lisa Murkowski.
Governor Murkowski appointed Palin to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she chaired the Commission from 2003 to 2004, and also served as Ethics Supervisor.[34] Palin resigned in January 2004 in protest over what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Republican members.
After resigning, Palin filed formal complaints against the state Republican Party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes. She accused Ruedrich, one of her fellow commissioners, of doing work for the party on public time and working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating. 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 that was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in Alaska.
Governor of Alaska
In 2006, running on a clean-government platform, Palin defeated then-Governor Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary.[40] Her running mate was State Senator Sean Parnell. Senator Stevens made a last-moment endorsement and filmed a TV commercial together with Palin for the gubernatorial campaign.
In August, she declared that education, public safety, and transportation would be the three cornerstones of her administration. Despite spending less than her Democratic opponent, she won the gubernatorial election in November, defeating former Governor Tony Knowles 48.3 percent to 40.9 percent.
Palin became Alaska's first female governor and, at 42, the youngest in Alaskan history. She is the first Alaskan governor born after Alaska achieved U.S. statehood and the first governor not inaugurated in Juneau; she chose to have the ceremony held in Fairbanks instead. She took office on December 4, 2006 and has maintained an elevated approval rating throughout her term.
She sometimes broke with the state Republican establishment. For example, she endorsed Parnell's bid to unseat the state's longtime at-large U.S. Congressman, Don Young. Palin also publicly challenged Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the ongoing federal investigation into his financial dealings. Shortly before his July 2008 indictment, she held a joint news conference with Stevens, described by The Washington Post as being held "to make clear she had not abandoned him politically."
Who I'd like to meet: Governor Sarah Palin delivered the following remarks after John McCain announced that she was joining the ticket as the nominee for Vice President.
Governor Sarah Palin: "And I thank you, Senator McCain and Mrs. McCain, for the confidence that you have placed in me. Senator, I am honored to be chosen as your running mate. I will be honored to serve next to the next president of the United States.
"I know that when Senator McCain gave me this opportunity, he had a short list of highly qualified men and women, and to have made that list at all -- it was a privilege. And to have been chosen brings a great challenge. I know that it will demand the best that I have to give, and I promise nothing less.
"First, there are a few people whom I would like you to meet. I want to start with my husband, Todd. And Todd and I are actually celebrating our 20th anniversary today, and I promised him a little surprise for the anniversary present, and hopefully he knows that I did deliver.
"And then we have as -- after my husband, who is a lifelong commercial fisherman, lifetime Alaskan -- he's a production operator. Todd is a production operator in the oil fields up on Alaska's North Slope, and he's a proud member of the United Steelworkers Union, and he's a world champion snow machine racer. Todd and I met way back in high school, and I can tell you that he is still the man that I admire most in this world.
"Along the way, Todd and I have shared many blessings, and four out of five of them are here with us today. Our oldest son, Track, though, he'll be following the presidential campaign from afar. On September 11th of last year, our son enlisted in the United States Army. Track now serves in an infantry brigade. And on September 11th, Track will deploy to Iraq in the service of his country. And Todd and I are so proud of him and of all the fine men and women serving the country in uniform.
"Next to Todd is our daughter Bristol; another daughter, Willow; our youngest daughter, Piper; and over in their arms is our son Trig, a beautiful baby boy. He was born just in April. His name is Trig Paxson Van Palin.
"Some of life's greatest opportunities come unexpectedly, and this is certainly the case today. I never really set out to be involved in public affairs, much less to run for this office. My mom and dad both worked at the local elementary school. And my husband and I, we both grew up working with our hands.
"I was just your average 'hockey mom' in Alaska. We were busy raising our kids. I was serving as the team mom and coaching some basketball on the side. I got involved in the PTA and then was elected to the city council and then elected mayor of my hometown, where my agenda was to stop wasteful spending and cut property taxes and put the people first.
"I was then appointed ethics commissioner and chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and when I found corruption there, I fought it hard and I held the offenders to account. Along with fellow reformers in the great state of Alaska, as governor, I've stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the Big Oil companies and the 'good old boy' network.
"When oil and gas prices went up so dramatically and the state revenues followed with that increase, I sent a large share of that revenue directly back to the people of Alaska -- and we are now -- we're now embarking on a $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.
"I signed major ethics reforms, and I appointed both Democrats and independents to serve in my administration. And I've championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress thanks, but no thanks, on that "Bridge to Nowhere." If our state wanted a bridge, I said, we'd build it ourselves.
"Well, it's always, though, safer in politics to avoid risk, to just kind of go along with the status quo. But I didn't get into government to do the safe and easy things. A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not why the ship is built. Politics isn't just a game of competing interests and clashing parties. The people of America expect us to seek public office and to serve for the right reasons. And the right reason is to challenge the status quo and to serve the common good.
"Now, no one expects us to agree on everything, whether in Juneau or in Washington. But we are expected to govern with integrity and good will and clear convictions and a servant's heart.
"Now, no leader in America has shown these qualities so clearly or presents so clear a threat to business as usual in Washington as Senator John S. McCain. This -- this is a moment when principles and political independence matter a lot more than just the party line. And this is a man who has always been there to serve his country, not just his party.
"And this is a moment that requires resolve and toughness and strength of heart in the American president. And my running mate is a man who has shown those qualities in the darkest of places and in the service of his country. A colleague once said about Senator McCain: That man did things for this country that few people could go through; never forget that. And that speaker was former Senator John Glenn of Ohio. And John Glenn knows something about heroism.
"And I'm going to make sure nobody does forget that in his campaign. There is only one candidate who has truly fought for America, and that man is John McCain.
"This is a moment -- this is a moment when great causes can be won and great threats overcome, depending on the judgment of our next president. In a dangerous world, it is John McCain who will lead America's friends and allies in preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
"It was John McCain who cautioned long ago about the harm that Russian aggression could do to Georgia and to other small Democratic neighbors and to the world oil markets.
"It was Senator McCain who refused to hedge his support for our troops in Iraq, regardless of the political costs. And you know what? As the mother of one of those troops and as the commander of Alaska's National Guard, that's the kind of man I want as our commander in chief.
"Profiles in courage, they can be hard to come by these days. You know, so often we just find them in books. But next week when we nominate John McCain for president, we're putting one on the ballot!
"To serve as vice president beside such a man would be the privilege of a lifetime, and it's fitting that this trust has been given to me 88 years almost to the day after the women of America first gained the right to vote.
"I think as well today of two other women who came before me in national elections. I can't begin this great effort without honoring the achievements of Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and, of course, Senator Hillary Clinton, who showed such determination and grace in her presidential campaign.
"It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.
"So for my part, the mission is clear. The next 67 days I'm going to take our campaign to every part of our country and our message of reform to every voter of every background, in every political party, or no party at all. If you want change in Washington, if you hope for a better America, then we're asking for your vote on the 4th of November.
"My fellow Americans, come join our cause. Join our cause and help our country to elect a great man the next president of the United States. And I thank you, and I -- God bless you, I say, and God bless America. Thank you."
Hi Sarah-- Just wanted to drop by and remind everyone that Obama's tax plan penalizes people who are married. If you are single, you can make $200K/year, but if you're married, only $250K/year. So, if together you make $400k/year, you have to pay taxes on the extra $150 thousand, unless you just choose living together, or be "fiscally responsible" and file for divorce. At a 30% tax rate, it would cost you $45,000 a year to stay married. Also, let's say one spouses business or job starts paying $250K/year, and their spouse has a job paying $45k/year. At a 30% tax rate, they would have to forfiet their entire wages for that year. In fact, it would actually make them lose money to keep their job, ie; gas money to commute to work, lunch monies, etc. This is the best way to keep people from saying "I DO" or help them decide to say "I'm leaving".
Amazing that you're being attacked by our own party operatives. If it wasn't for you, I would have voted for Bob Barr. You were the power on the ticket! Tell that to Mc Cain's losing staffers. PALIN 2012!
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I VOTED ON FRIDAY......FOR MCCAIN/PALIN! I CANT WAIT TIL THIS IS ALL DONE AND YOU ARE IN OFFICE DOING GREAT WORK FOR US SARAH! YOU AND JOHN ARE IN MY PRAYERS! di
Thanks for the friend add. A true pleasure to meet you. Hope you have a great week in all you do.
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