Meet Sarah
Who is Sarah Palin?



Palin was born Sarah Louise Heath in Sandpoint, Idaho, the daughter of
Sarah (née Sheeran), a school secretary, and Charles R. Heath, a
science teacher and track coach.[5][6] She has English, Irish, and
German ancestry. [5] Her family moved to Alaska when she was an
infant.[6] The Heaths were avid outdoors enthusiasts; Sarah and her
father would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school,
and the family regularly ran 5 km and 10 km races.[6]

At Wasilla High School in Wasilla, Alaska, Palin was the head of the
school Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

[6] She was the point guard and captain for the basketball team. She
helped the team win the Alaska small-school championship in 1982,
hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds, despite a stress
fracture in her ankle.[6] She earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda"
because of her intense play,[6] and was the leader of team prayer
before games.[6]

In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla contest earlier, then finished
second in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant[7], which won her a
scholarship to help pay her way through college.[6] In the Wasilla
pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.[8][9]

Palin holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of
Idaho, where she also minored in political science.[10]. She married
Todd Palin, who had been her boyfriend from high school onward, on
August 29, 1988, and briefly worked as a sports reporter for local
Anchorage television stations while also working as a commercial
fisherwoman with her husband.

Palin's husband, Todd,[73] works for BP energy corporation at an oil
field on Alaska's North Slope[74] and works as a fisherman in his
hometown in the summers. Todd is a champion snowmobiler, winning
the 2,000-mile (3,200 km) "Iron Dog" race four times.[6] Todd is
one-eighth Yup'ik. The two eloped shortly after Palin graduated from
college; when they learned they needed witnesses for the civil
ceremony, they recruited two residents from the old-age home down
the street.[6] The Palin family liv es in Wasilla, about 40 miles (64 km)
north of Anchorage.

On September 11, 2007, the Palins' then eighteen-year-old son Track,
eldest of five, joined the Army.[75] He now serves in an infantry bri
gade and will be deploye d to Iraq on September 11, 2008.[76] She also
has three daughters: Bristol , Willow and Piper.[12]

On April 18, 2008, while in office as governor, Palin gave birth to her
second son and fifth child, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who prenatal genetic
testing showed would have Down syndrome.[77] She returned to the
office three days after giving birth.[17] Her decision to have the baby
was applauded by the pro-life community.[78][79]





Details of Palin's personal life have contributed to her political image.
She hunts, eats moose hamburger, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and
owns a float plane.[19][80] Palin holds a lifetime membership with the
National Rifle Association. In December 2007, Palin posed for a photo
spread in the fashion magazine Vogue.[81]< /B>

She also wears real fur!

Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 to 1996.
In 1996, she challenged and defeated the incumbent mayor, criticizing
wasteful spending and high taxes.[6] The ex-mayor and sheriff tried to
organize a recall campaign, but failed.[6] Palin followed through on her
campaign promises to reduce her own salary, and to reduce property
taxes by 60%.[6] She ran for reelection against the former mayor in
1999, winning by an even larger margin.[6][11] Palin was also elected
president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.[12]

In 2006, Palin, running on a clean-government campaign, upset
then-Gov. Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary.[6] In
August, she declared that that education, public safety, and
transportation would be three cornerstones of her administration.[16]
Despite the lack of support from party leaders and being outspent by
her Democratic opponent, she won the general election in November,
defeating former Governor Tony Knowles.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sarah_Palin_Germany_4.jpg



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sarah_Palin_Germany_4.jpg



Palin visits a wounded soldier in Landstuhl , Germany , July 2007



Palin became the first woman to be Alaska's governor, and at 42, the
youngest governor in Alaskan history. Palin was also the first Alaskan
governor born after Alaska achieved U.S. statehood and the first not to
be inaugurated in Juneau, instead choosing to hold her inauguration
cere mony in Fairbanks. She took office on December 4, 2006.

Highlights of Governor Palin's tenure include a successful push for an
ethics bill, and also shelving pork-barrel projects supported by fellow
Republicans. After federal funding for the Gravina Island Bridge project
that had become a nationwide symbol of wasteful earmark spending
was lost, Palin decided against filling the over $200 m illion gap with
state money.[17][18] " Alaska needs to be self-sufficient, she says,
instead of relying heavily on 'federal dollars,' as the state does
today."[19]

She has challenged the state's Republican leaders, helping to launch a
campaign by Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell to unseat U.S.
Congressman Don Young[20] and publicly challenging Senator Ted
Stevens</ A> to come clean about the federal investigation into his
financial dealings.[17]

In 2007, Palin had an approval rating often above 90%