John McCain’s VP Pick Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin ~ Fantastic!

Announcement to be made by McCain at noon EST

Gov. Palin grew up in Wasilla, where as star of her high school basketball team she got the nickname “Sarah Barracuda”
Her rise is a great (and rare) story of how adherence to principle–especially to transparency and accountability in government–can produce political success. And by the way, Palin is a conservative who only last month vetoed 13 percent of the state’s proposed budget for capital projects. The cuts, the Anchorage Daily News said, “may be the biggest single-year line-item veto total in state history.”
As recently as last year, Palin (pronounced pale-in) was a political outcast. She resigned in January 2004 as head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission after complaining to the office of Governor Frank Murkowski and to state Attorney General Gregg Renkes about ethical violations by another commissioner, Randy Ruedrich, who was also Republican state chairman.
State law barred Palin from speaking out publicly about ethical violations and corruption. But she was vindicated later in 2004 when Ruedrich, who’d been reconfirmed as state chairman, agreed to pay a $12,000 fine for breaking state ethics laws. She became a hero in the eyes of the public and the press, and the bane of Republican leaders.
In 2005, she continued to take on the Republican establishment by joining Eric Croft, a Democrat, in lodging an ethics complaint against Renkes, who was not only attorney general but also a long-time adviser and campaign manager for Murkowski. The governor reprimanded Renkes and said the case was closed. It wasn’t. Renkes resigned a few weeks later, and Palin was again hailed as a hero.
Palin, 43, the mother of four, passed up a chance to challenge Republican senator Lisa Murkowski, the then-governor’s daughter, in 2004. She endorsed another candidate in the primary, but Murkowski won and was reelected. Palin said then that her 14-year-old son talked her out of running, though it’s doubtful that was the sole reason.
In 2006, she didn’t hesitate.
She ran against Gov. Murkowski, who was seeking a second term despite sagging poll ratings, in the Republican primary. In a three-way race, Palin captured 51 percent and won in a landslide. She defeated former Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election, 49 percent to 41 percent. She was one of the few Republicans anywhere in the country to perform above expectations in 2006, an overwhelmingly Democratic year. Palin is unabashedly pro life.
With her emphasis on ethics and openness in government, “it turned out Palin caught the temper of the times perfectly,” wrote Tom Kizzia of the Anchorage Daily News. She was also lucky. News broke of an FBI investigation of corruption by legislators between the primary and general elections. So far, three legislators have been indicted.
In the roughly three years since she quit as the state’s chief regulator of the oil industry, Palin has crushed the Republican hierarchy (virtually all male) and nearly every other foe or critic. Political analysts in Alaska refer to the “body count” of Palin’s rivals.
“The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah,” says pollster Dave Dittman, who worked for her gubernatorial campaign. It includes Ruedrich, Renkes, Murkowski, gubernatorial contenders John Binkley and Andrew Halcro, the three big oil companies in Alaska, and a section of the Daily News called “Voice of the Times,” which was highly critical of Palin and is now defunct.
One of her first acts as governor was to fire the Alaska Board of Agriculture. Her ultimate target was the state Creamery Board, which has been marketing the products of Alaska dairy farmers for 71 years and wanted to close down after receiving $600,000 from the state. “You don’t just close your doors and walk away,” Palin told me. She discovered she lacked the power to fire the Creamery Board. Only the board of agriculture had that authority. So Palin replaced the agriculture board, which appointed a new creamery board, which has rescinded the plan to shut down.
In preserving support for dairy farmers, Palin exhibited a kind of Alaskan chauvinism. She came to the state as an infant, making her practically a native. And she is eager to keep Alaska free from domination by oil companies or from reliance on cruise lines whose ships bring thousands of tourists to the state.
“She’s as Alaskan as you can get,” says Dan Fagan, an Anchorage radio talk show host. “She’s a hockey mom, she lives on a lake, she ice fishes, she snowmobiles, she hunts, she’s an NRA member, she has a float plane, and her husband works for BP on the North Slope,” Fagan says. Todd Palin, her high school sweetheart, is a three-time winner of the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race from Wasilla to Nome to Fairbanks. It’s the world’s longest snowmobile race.

Alaska governor sees ‘perfection’ in son with Down syndrome
The results of Gov. Sarah Palin’s prenatal testing were in, and the doctor’s tone was ominous: “You need to come to the office so we can talk about it.”
Palin, known for a resolve that quickly launched her from suburban hockey mom to a player on the national political stage, said, “No, go ahead and tell me over the phone.”
The physician replied, “Down syndrome,” stunning the Republican governor, who had just completed what many political analysts called a startling first year in office.
The doctor’s announcement in December, when Palin was four months pregnant, presented her with a possible life- and career-changing development.
“I’ve never had problems with my other pregnancies, so I was shocked,” said Palin, a mother of four other children.
Once her husband got the news, he told her: “We shouldn’t be asking, ‘Why us?’ We should be saying, ‘Well, why not us?'”
There was never any doubt the Palins would have the child, and on April 18 she gave birth to Trig Paxon Van Palin.
“We’ve both been very vocal about being pro-life,” Palin said. “We understand that every innocent life has wonderful potential.”

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Brilliant move!
I LOVE this heh heh “she got the nickname “Sarah Barracuda” “. Out of the park, game changing home run Senator McCain.
She is a governor and has been a mayor, so she has executive experience—right there is more experience than B.Hussein Obama.
This choice will cause the dems to self-destruct.
Also pro-life! Five children, the last of which is a Downs Sybdrome child. God bless her. A hunter, pro drilling, she is also a hockey player.

“We’ve both been very vocal about being pro-life,” she told the Associated Press. “We understand that every innocent life has wonderful potential.”

Gov. Palin loves to get up in the middle of the night to go moose hunting! Now it’s a female clinging to her guns and religion!
Lifetime NRA Member
Oldest Son Joined Army on 9/11 and will be deployed to Iraq this September!!
giggle….she eats moose burgers, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and owns a float plane!
From CBS News’ Ryan Corsaro:

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s parents were called early this morning at their home in Wasilla and told to “listen to the radio” by Palin’s husband, Tim.
Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, says he and his wife were caribou hunting when they were told to come home and tune into their local radio station to hear “exciting news,” but said he did not know if his daughter was the choice for John McCain’s vice president.
“The river was swollen, so we almost didn’t get back,” Palin’s mother, Sally Heath, told CBS News.
The two said they said the call was “a wonderful surprise.”