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Sunday 05.02.2012

Palin V.P. choice for John McCain

Republican candidate John McCain for the United States presidency has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Republican candidate John McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.



She would be the first woman ever to serve on a Republican presidential ticket. The pro-life Palin would also be the first Alaskan ever to appear on a national ticket.

Palin, 44, was elected Alaska's first woman governor in 2006. The state’s voters had grown weary of career politician Gov. Frank Murkowski, whom she defeated in the GOP primary.

Palin's selection was a stunning surprise, as McCain passed over many other better-known prospects, some of whom had been the subject of intense speculation for weeks or months.

She is a generation younger than Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, who is Barack Obama's running mate on the Democratic ticket.

She is three years Obama's junior, as well, and McCain has made much in recent weeks of Obama's relative lack of experience in foreign policy and defense matters.

On Aug. 1, Palin scored a major victory when the Alaska legislature passed a bill that authorizes her administration to award a license to TransCanada Alaska to build a natural gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope to a hub in Canada.

Palin is married to Todd Palin, a lifelong Alaskan who is a production operator on the North Slope and a four-time champion of the Iron Dog, which is described as “the world's longest snow-machine race.”

They have five children. Their son, Track, enlisted in the U.S. Army on Sept. 11, 2007.

Palin birth to their fifth child, Trig, last April. The baby boy has Down's syndrome, a genetic abnormality that impedes a child's intellectual and physical development.

Palin made a name for herself in Alaska politics by serving as mayor of Wasilla City for six years and going on to run unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 2002.