Introducinf Sarah Palin
Introducing Sarah Palin - current Governor of Alaska, and the presumptive Republican vice presidential candidate for the November 2008 election.[1] She is the second female Vice Presidential candidate representing a major American political party (the first was Geraldine Ferraro), first Republican.
Energy Issues
Palin’s tenure is noted for her independence from big oil companies, while still promoting resource development.[10][9] Palin has announced plans to create a new sub-cabinet group of advisors, to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska.[19]
Social Issues
Palin is strongly pro-life and belongs to Feminists for Life.[12] She opposes same-sex marriage, but she has stated that she has gay friends and is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination.[12] While the previous administration did not implement same-sex benefits, Palin complied with a state Supreme Court order and signed them into law.[32]
Budget
In the first days of her administration, Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account) by the Murkowski administration. The state placed the jet for sale on eBay three times. In August 2007, the jet was sold for $2.7 million.[40]
Shortly after becoming governor, Palin canceled an 11-mile (18-kilometer) gravel road outside of Juneau to a mine. This reversed a decision made in the closing days or hours of the Murkowski Administration.[41]
In June 2007, Palin signed into law the largest operating budget in Alaska’s history ($6.6 billion).[42] At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history. The US$237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects, and reduced the construction budget to nearly US$1.6 billion.[43]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080829/pl_politico/12966
The Ticket: McCain- Palin
Jonathan Martin, Tim Grieve
DAYTON, OHIO, — In one of the most shocking vice-presidential selections in political history, John McCain has tapped Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old first-term governor of Alaska, to be his running mate.
Praising her “strong principles, fighting spirit and deep compassion,” McCain told a noontime rally here that Palin —who only two years ago was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska — could help him take on the political status quo in Washington.
“She’s exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of me first and country second,” McCain, 72 today, proclaimed to about 15,000 flag-waving onlookers who crowded into a college basketball arena here to see the surprise pick in person.
Palin, wearing a blue suit with an American flag pin and a Blue Star broach indicating a child in the military, accepted McCain’s offer with her husband, Todd, and four of her five children looking on.
Noting that the day fell almost 88 years to the day after American women gained the right to vote, Palin won loud cheers from what was McCain’s largest rally yet by highlighting her gender.
She paid homage to Geraldine Ferraro , as well as to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America,” Palin said. “But it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.”
Palin began to tell the crowd and the stunned political class watching on TV about her unlikely rise from small-town Alaska to the national stage, with flourishes that could never be made up…..
Her husband and high school sweetheart, she said, is a lifelong commercial fisherman who works in the oil fields on Alaska’s North Slope and is a member of the US Steel Workers in addition to a world champion snowmobile rider.
A mother of five, Palin pointed out that their oldest couldn’t be present.
“On September 11th of last year, our son enlisted in the United States Army,” she shared, sparking a deafening ovation and chants of “USA.” “He now serves in an infantry brigade, and September 11th, he will deploy to Iraq in the service of his country.”
In selecting Palin, McCain counters the historic nature of Barack Obama’s candidacy. She’s young —three years younger than Obama — and she’s a woman, the first to land a spot on a major-party ticket since Walter Mondale picked Ferraro 24 years ago.
Disheartened Clinton supporters who were thinking about crossing over to vote for McCain may now have one more reason to do so.
Voters on the right will like Palin’s conservative credentials: She’s opposed to both abortion rights and gay marriage, supports increased domestic drilling for oil, is a lifelong member of the National Rifle Association and has a son in the U.S. Army.