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Who is Sarah Palin?

3K views 15 replies 15 participants last post by  SeldomShoots 
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Born: February 11, 1964
Birth State: Idaho
Spouse: Todd Palin
Children: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig
Religion: Christian (Pentecostal)
Political Party: Republican
Education: BA, Communications/Journalism, University of Idaho
Work Experience:
Alaska Governor
Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission Chair
National Governors Association (NGA) Natural Resources Committee Chair
Alaska Conference of Mayors President
Alaska Municipal League Board Member
Wasilla City Mayor
Wasilla City Council Member
Hockey Team Manager/Coach
Sports Journalist
Commercial Fisherwoman
Community Involvement:
Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc. Director
Alaska Resource Development Council Member
Valley Hospital Association Board Member
American Management Association Member
Alaska Miners Association Member
Chambers of Commerce Member
Alaska Outdoor Council Member
Salvation Army Board Member
Iditarod Parent-Teacher Association Member
Valley Youth Sports Member
Youth Court Steering Committee Member
National Rifle Association Member





Sarah Palin arrived in Alaska with her family in 1964, when her parents came to teach school in Skagway. She grew up hunting with her father, whose living room wall is densely populated with trophies and antlers. She 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. 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. She earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play and was the leader of team prayer before games.

Sarah went on to study journalism and political science in college, graduating from the University of Idaho in 1987. Along the way she competed in the Miss Alaska contest after being chosen Miss Wasilla 1984. In the talent portion of the show, she played the flute and won the title of Miss Congeniality.




She eloped in 1988 with her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin, who is a commercial fisherman, an oil field worker, a member of the United Steelworkers and an Alaska Native. Todd has worked 20 years on Alaska's North Slope for BP, where he has continued to work as a production operator. He is also a four-time winner of the Iron Dog, the 2,000-mile snowmachine race from Big Lake to Nome along the Iditarod Trail and then on to Fairbanks.

Sarah held a succession of jobs before making her way into politics, such as commercial fisherwoman and sports journalist for KTUU-TV in Anchorage.




In 1992, she won her seat on the Wasilla City Council by opposing tax hikes, and later reduced property taxes by 40 percent while increasing the budget for roads and sewers at the same time. Four years later, she was elected mayor of Wasilla, one of Alaska's fastest-growing communities, by knocking off a three-term incumbent. In October 1996, she asked the police chief, librarian, public works director, and finance director to resign. She also reduced the mayoral salary.

After Governor Frank Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in mid-term to become governor, he considered appointing Sarah to replace him in the Senate, but instead chose his daughter, Alaska state representative Lisa Murkowski. He later appointed Sarah as Ethics Commissioner on the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, but 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.

Sarah then filed formal complaints against Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes. She accused Ruedrich 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.




On Dec. 4, 2006, Sarah made history when she took office as the first woman Governor of Alaska. In office, her top priorities have been resource development, education and workforce development, public health and safety, and transportation and infrastructure development. During her first legislative session, Sarah's administration passed two major pieces of legislation - an overhaul of the state's ethics laws and a competitive process to construct a gas pipeline.








Sarah made national news when she stopped work on Ketchikan's Gravina Island Bridge, also known as the "Bridge to Nowhere," a move that earned her admirers among earmark critics and budget hawks from around the nation. The move also thrust her into the spotlight as a reform-minded newcomer.

Under her leadership, Alaska invested $5 billion in state savings, overhauled education funding, and implemented the Senior Benefits Program that provides support for low-income older Alaskans. She created Alaska's Petroleum Systems Integrity Office to provide oversight and maintenance of oil and gas equipment, facilities and infrastructure, and the Climate Change Subcabinet to prepare a climate change strategy for Alaska.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/X3jnbiHAMuY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/X3jnbiHAMuY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Sarah is chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, a multi-state government agency that promotes the conservation and efficient recovery of domestic oil and natural gas resources while protecting health, safety and the environment. She was recently named chair of the National Governors Association (NGA) Natural Resources Committee, which is charged with pursuing legislation to ensure state needs are considered as federal policy is formulated in the areas of agriculture, energy, environmental protection and natural resource management. Prior to being named to this position, she served as co-chair of this committee.

Sarah 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. She is staunchly pro-life, and has suggested requiring parental consent for abortions to be added to Alaska's constitution. Sarah supports capital punishment for some crimes, and has stated that: "If the legislature passed a death penalty law, I would sign it. We have a right to know that someone who rapes and murders a child or kills an innocent person in a drive-by shooting will never be able to do that again."




Sarah supports teaching both creationism and evolution in public schools, and does not believe that global warming is human-caused. She opposes federal listing of the polar bear as an endangered species on the grounds that the "population has dramatically increased over 30 years as a result of conservation.

She opposes same-sex marriage and supported a non-binding referendum for a constitutional amendment to deny state health benefits to same-sex couples.

Sarah is a long-time member of the National Rifle Association, and strongly supports its interpretation of the Second Amendment as protecting individual rights to bear arms, including handguns. Sarah also supports gun safety education for youth.




She has run a marathon, pilots her own seaplane, and enjoys hunting, ice fishing and snowmobiling. Her youngest son, Trig, was born with Down Syndrome this past April, her oldest daughter, Bristol, recently announced that she is pregnant, and her oldest son, Track, enlisted in the US Army in 2007 and is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq this month. Sarah's other two daughters are Willow and Piper.

Sarah is also the best-selling author of 'Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment on Its Ear' (currently sold out on Amazon) and a poll published by Hays Research on July 28, 2008, showed Sarah's approval rating as Governor to be 80 percent.
 
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