It looks official. John MCCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin with 1.5 years of leadership experience as governor.
Wikipedia reports that she got a degree in journalism, then had a job as a sports reporter at an anchorage TV station. She served four years on the Wasilla city council. She went on to run for and become mayor of Wasilla (population 5,470) Alaska.
Her husband is a commercial fisherman and and a "world class snow machine racer.
Here's the beginning of a profile on her. Help build it by adding your comments.
44 years old pro-life Catholic, lifetime NRA member
Governor since 2007, former mayor of
Charged with abuse of her power for firing the public safety commissioner because he refused to fire the man her sister was in a nasty divorce with. I'm guessing that the McCain camp will use this in her favor, arguing that even if it were true, she was protecting her sister from an abusive man.
"Attorney General Colberg said his office's review began after State Senator Hollis French was quoted in The Wall Street Journal about two weeks ago saying the governor could be impeached as a result of the probe. That raised questions about how impartial the Legislature's investigation was going to be, according to the governor's office. Colberg told KTUU it isn't witness tampering. The only problem is that if the worst case scenario happens, it will appear as if a potential defendant, the Palin Administration, was prepping potential witnesses.
Opinion: Sarah Palin could have saved herself a lot of grief if she had simply told us why she canned Walt Monegan last month instead of serving up some New Age Oprah-style drivel about "new energy" and "new direction". There seems to be a disturbing aura of New Age influence within the Palin Administration.
The tough part is trying to sort out how much smoke and how much fire there is to this mess. Personally, I don't get a sense that the Palin Administration is corrupt; instead, I think they're ignorant, naive, and parochial. Andrew Halcro has been reasonably fair about his pursuit of the problem"
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com and is a columnist with Northstarwriters.com. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
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But Palin’s seemingly bright future was clouded in late July when the state legislature voted to hire an independent investigator to find out whether she tried to have a state official fire her ex-brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper.
The allegation was made by former Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, whom Palin fired in mid-July.
“It is a governor’s prerogative, a right, to fill that cabinet with members whom she or he believes will do best for the people whom we are serving,” Palin told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow in an interview on Aug. 1. “So I look forward to any kind of investigation or questions being asked because I’ve got nothing to hide.”
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Cheryl Biren-Wright (27 articles, 26 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 412 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 10:26:11 AM
Maybe you should read a little more about what the gentleman Gov Palin fired did before you accept only just a few of the things that happen to make Gov Palin look bad if they are true. In my view she was completely justified in firing the guy. The fact she had the guts to do so in face of being accused of 'corruption' says a lot about her judgement and courage. Gov Palin is enormously popular in Alaska among Republicans, Democrats and Indepenents because she consistently does the right thing and doesn't seem to rely on polls or whichever the political winds are blowing like the Senator from Illinois consistently does as you certainly know.
I just returned from Alaska and while there visited her office in Juneau. It impressed me greatly. I did not see any evidence of political ego. I had to ask her personal secretary for a photo and only saw one of her in the entire building. Most governors construct shrines to themselves in their capitol buildings. You have to go to Alaska to understand it politically and environmentally. I heard, for examples, Democrats who are usually 100% against harming any wildlife (me too) supporting shooting wolves from aircraft. It is too long of an explanation to go into here but it seemed bizarre to me. Alaskans are going to vote on it or already have done so recently.
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Mad Jayhawk (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 418 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 10:25:25 PM
I've been digging, just got off the phone with the head
of the Democratic party in Alaska, and spoke to a number of other leaders in the democratic party there.
So... which firing are you talking about-- the one while she was governor or the one when she was mayor, where the public paid a private settlement?
And it's no wonder there are no pictures of her in Juneau. She does her work in Anchorage, so she can commute from home, adding to the expense of govt.
The word is it's her way or the highway. But she does not how to pose pretty for the public. People who enter beauty contests are good at that.
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Rob Kall (869 articles, 4016 quicklinks, 345 diaries, 1847 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 10:55:58 PM
Hmmm...so let's see if we've got this straight ...we have a 'hockey mom' who likes to fish and hunt and is younger than Obama with no Washington experience...who is also a first term governor with sterling credentials as a sports journalist and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.
She certainly will be well qualified to assume the role of commander-in-chief should very senior citizen McPander die while in office.
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Daniel Hanley (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 11:30:21 AM
Palin NOT Qualified To Be President! Dems better hammer her!
IF we want to win, we'd hammer Palin's lack of experience. I don't care about McCain being "bold" in picking her. She is a far right winger; she supports drilling, and extremest non-abortion position, and besides that, she's only served as Governor since 2006! She's only been the Mayor of a City of 8,500! She's NOT qualified to be Vice President! What is McCain thinking?
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Nicholas Smith (9 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 7 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 11:14:59 AM
She's not running for president of the PTA -- she's running for Vice President of the United States. Even if she were running for PTA prez, she should be vetted to insure she has the proper experience and credentials. The kids would deserve it. The kids she will be responsible for sending to their deaths if she's VP also deserve it.
Get a grip.
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Sheila Samples (52 articles, 4327 quicklinks, 43 diaries, 461 comments)
on Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 8:46:31 PM
Agree or not with Bill Clinton's assessment that Obama "hit one out of the park" with his first Presidential decision -- the selection of Joe Biden for VP -- McCain's team, after botching a sacrifice bunt with their absurd "Obama's just a celebrity" ad campaign, appears to have just grounded into a double play to end the inning.
(yeah, I know -- enough with the baseball metaphors)
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Robert Knowles (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 59 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 11:29:07 AM
Sarah seems not to really care about the rights of the wildlife in her state over special interests. She feels the polar bear is not really threaten by melting ice caps and she feels it is okay to kill wolves by aerial hunting. Maybe if she became VP she would declare war on wildlife and protecting special interests by putting them under the Threaten Species Act. I am sure McCain wouldn't have a problem with that.
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Rick Theile (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 50 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 11:32:49 AM
That the above comment would come from a new OEN contributor whose personal website boasts a blogroll consisting of: Americans Against Obama, Chicagoans Against Obama, No Bama Network, Not Wright for America, and Party Unity My Ass (PUMA).
If the if it's not Hillary folks would open their eyes - even slightly - they would see that aside from a similarity in their anatomies, Sarah Palin does not translate into Hillary Clinton. Good Lord, have some sense.
Do you just hate Barack Obama or were you for McCain all along? Or, is it an unhealthy affinity for Hillary Clinton. Do you think Hillary Clinton would vote for Sarah Palin?
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Cheryl Biren-Wright (27 articles, 26 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 412 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 12:17:45 PM
Veterans overwhelming against McCain. Why? Because McCain actually hates the armed services because he hated Annapolis, had to be removed from one aircraft carrier before his own men killed him, and blames the military for his imprisonment during Vietnam. He consistently votes against veteran's benefits but for placing our troops in harm's way.
Currently active servicemen and women in Iraq and Afghanistan contributing to Obama over McCain 6 to 1 in favor of Obama. Why? Because Obama saw the truth that Iraq had nothing to do with the war on terror, and that we should withdraw from Iraq years before Bush decided to do exactly that thing. McCain still has not adopted that position. He is a dinosaur with no understanding at all of the proper conduct of foreign policy.
You will be voting to make abortion a capital offense for the next twenty to thirty years and hundreds of thousands of female teens will die agonizing deaths because you trust this ignorant old man and this rabid right wing ideologue more than Obama because both Obama and Clinton stooped to some pretty low tactics to gain the nomination. So you want to punish all of the young poor females of America because you lost. Talk about an ego!
You need to see a therapist before you ruin any more lives than you already have. You would rather put the nuclear option in the hand of this completely unknown personality than the proven reasonableness of Obama and Biden. In my book, that is called sociopathy.
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W.M.L. (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 399 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 11:03:14 PM
I might find your statement more credible and compelling if you could substantiate your distrust. Could it be that you have been heavily influenced by propoganda and not able to think for yourself.
I believe that vision and pragmatism, such as offered by the team of Obama/Biden will offer the change this country is so desperately in need of.
A woman, such as Gov Palin, who supports the raping and despoiling of a once very pristine State in the name of more money for her state (sound like Saudi Arabia to me) is highly questionable in my opinion. Of course she is popular in Alaska, Alaskan residents get a portion of the tax revenues. All this boils down to again, as with our connection to the Middle East, is money. And imagine how much would be left of the $1200 or so that each Alaskan gets each year for this tax revenue if it must be shared by the whole country? Or perhaps it will be solely pocketed by those that now currently benefit. Same old stuff, just wrapped in a prettier picture!
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Lisa Akers (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 8 comments)
on Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 2:19:14 AM
McCain picked an absolute nobody with no experience in a fruitless attempt to pick up the female vote. I was at a political picnic yesterday and there were a lot of women there.
Every one, not just a few, EVERYONE said McCains choice amounted to an insult to women. The consesus is they now are certain that McCain has no clue about women and that he thinks they are mindless enough to vote for him now just because he picked a woman for his VP.
My 93 year old mother saw through that instantely and she used to be a McCain supporter in the past. She is all for Obama now; McCain insulted her intelligence.
She said it probably won't matter anyway because any woman dumb enough to vote McCain because of Palin was probably already dumb enough to vote McCain anyway. ( zero vote gain )
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Paul Kruger (33 articles, 1 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 275 comments)
on Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 9:48:35 AM
Comment from Ratings: Great story of another historical moment. The Energy, NRA, Pro-life, against the status-quo executive Veep pick. She Canceled the funds for the Bridge to no where. Military Family, Son signed up on Sept 11, 2008.
This race just got a lot more exciting! The 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling have a way to burst through.
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Albert Milliron (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 11:55:40 AM
This is a pip! What genius on McCain's staff thought of this one? They have just handed the election to Obama, thank heavens!
She is against the polar bears survival, her political decisions have been questionable - the thing about her sister's ex husband being punished for something that she should have recused herself from.
She has too many children. (Remember the planet?)
She is a lifetime member of the NRA. Really?
She's an all round gem. She has been in office for two minutes in a state that seems to have no conscience about some really important issues. They think Ted Stevens is an okay guy.
They think it's fine to drill anywhere in the world and don't understand that we're trying to get ourselves out of the oil business in favor of green forms of energy.
In short, she's a perfect match for Grampa Diapers.
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Caronome (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 241 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 12:07:11 PM
I think the important point isn't that Dems can't criticize Palin for lack of experience. The Palin pick has taken away the Repub argument about Obama, and exposed their former concern as hypocritical. On the other hand, Dems don't need to make inexperience an issue. Her record and her performance in the campaign (especially the debate) should do McCain plenty of damage without help from the Dems.
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Jim Arnold (12 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 81 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 12:29:14 PM
I think it was Bill Moyers show that exposed a lot of the corruption of Sen Stevens..He made the Governer look like a grat MAVERICK,FIGHTER OF cORRUPTION,forceful,action packed ,go get em....Jean
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mcmahon (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 15 comments)
on Friday, August 29, 2008 at 12:35:16 PM
