Sarah Palin Biography

American politician Sarah Palin is currently the governor of Alaska and, more recently, the 2008 vice-presidential pick for the Republican Party. The nomination makes her only the second woman to hold the honor.

Sarah Louise Heath Palin was born February 11, 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho. Her parents were Sarah Sheeran and Charles R Heath, a secretary and teacher respectively.

From infancy on, Palin was raised in Alaska. Taking full advantage of her Alaskan environment, Palin and her father would sometimes hunt moose at three in the morning before she attended school.

On the education front, Palin graduated from Wasilla High School where she was a key player on the school’s basketball team.

She also entered the 1984 Miss Wasilla beauty pageant and took first place. She was then runner-up in the Miss Alaska contest. Securing a scholarship through the pageant, Palin pursued her secondary education from Hawaii Pacific College. Shortly after, she transferred to North Idaho College followed by University of Idaho, where she earned her undergraduate degree in journalism and communications.

Sarah's first career was as a TV sportscaster in Anchorage, while her husband worked in commercial fishing.

After several years in this career path, Palin set her sights on her political aspirations. To that end, she ran for Wasilla city council in 1992. Winning a seat, she served until 1996.

Setting her sights even higher, 1996 saw her bid for the position of mayor. She beat out incumbent John Stein. After several radical moves such as firing Wasilla’s chief of police, Palin was confronted with the possibility of a campaign recall. The group leading the attack, known as the Concerned Citizens for Wasilla, eventually dropped the case.

After a rocky start, Palin’s political promises began falling into place. These included reducing the salary of the mayor as well as reducing property taxes. She was up for reelection in 1999 and once again beat Stein.

In 2002 Palin ran for lieutenant governor, but the seat ultimately went to Loren Leman.

Bouncing back, she was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004. Also serving as the ethics supervisor, Palin was instrumental in bringing down corruption from Republican Party members such as Randy Ruedrich and Gregg Renkes.

Riding high off her policy of governmental cleanup, Sarah ran for governor of Alaska in 2006 with Senator Sean Parnell. Winning, Palin officially became the first female governor of Alaska.

Quickly making a name for herself, Palin pulled high profile hijinks such as auctioning the former jet of Frank Murkowski on eBay.

Palin is also noted for her endorsement of utilizing oil and gas resources in Alaska. Palin’s other major platforms include a pro-life agenda and a constitutional banning of same-sex marriage. A major proponent of the second amendment, Palin is hugely popular with the National Rifle Association.

Receiving an unprecedented boost to her career, Palin received her shot at the White House on August 29, 2008. On that date, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain named her his official running mate. She beat out rumored contenders Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Joe Lieberman, Tom Ridge, and others. With McCain, she will take on Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the 2008 presidential election.

Palin’s nomination makes her the second female vice-presidential pick. The first was democratic running mate of Walter Mondale, Geraldine Ferraro.

In her personal life, she married Todd Palin on August 29, 1988. They have been together since their high school days. They have five children, one of whom has Down syndrome. Her son, Track Palin, will deploy to Iraq on September 11, 2008.

Following hard on the news of her appointment as McCain's running mate, Sarah was forced to announce that her 17 year old daughter, Bristol Palin, was in fact 5 months pregnant by her boyfriend Levi. Amid contoversy and publicity Palin told the press that her daughter was planning to marry the father of the child. Sources reported that McCain knew of Palin's predicament at the time of his selection of her as his prospective Vice President but didn't consider it a problem.

But none of the scandal prior to, or during her time as John McCain's running mate was eventually to be of any consequence, when on November 4th 2008 Barack Obama was announced as the president elect after beating the McCain/Palin campaign into second position.

Sarah returned to Alaska amid rumours that she will now be eyeing up the possibility of running for president herself in 2012.

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