Anyone who thinks Sarah Palin is just a pretty face never looked at her resume. Or run against her - or gone hunting with her.The former beauty pageant contestant and first-term Alaska governor has a reputation for knocking heads in the state Legislature while pushing through political reforms.
As she has worked her way up from the Wasilla City Council to the governor's mansion in Juneau, she has challenged heavy spending and fought to reduce taxes.
At 44, she is the youngest and first female governor of Alaska and now the first woman on a GOP presidential ticket.
"She knows where she comes from, and she knows who she works for," John McCain said in introducing her Friday at an Ohio rally. "She stands up for what's right, and she doesn't let anyone tell her to sit down."
Said Palin: "I didn't get into government to do the safe and easy things. A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not why the ship is built."
Before she got into politics, Palin described herself as "just your average hockey mom in Alaska."
She and her husband, Todd Palin, have five children, ranging from a 19-year-old son, Track, who is to deploy to Iraq with the Army in September, to a baby son, Trig, born in April with Down syndrome. They have three daughters in between.
From Juneau to Vogue
Palin lives in Wasilla, a town of 8,500 about 30 miles north of Anchorage, with her husband, a blue-collar North Slope oil worker who won the 2007 Iron Dog, a 1,900-mile snowmobile race. He is part Yup'ik Eskimo. The two have spent summers fishing commercially for salmon, an enterprise that once left her with broken fingers aboard their boat.
Palin typically walks the state Capitol halls in black or red power suits while reading text messages on a BlackBerry screen in each hand. She made a recent appearance in fashion magazine Vogue.
"At first they had me in a bunch of furs," she said of the December photo shoot. "Yeah, I have furs on my wall, but I don't wear furs. I had to show them my bunny boots and North Face clothing."
Palin, who led the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at her high school, could help McCain's standing with social conservatives who have been skeptical of him.
After serving on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 to 1996, she defeated the town's incumbent mayor by campaigning against wasteful spending and high taxes.
She won the governorship in 2006 by beating incumbent Frank Murkowski, a former senator, in the Republican primary, then toppling a former two-term Democratic governor in the general election.
For fun, Palin hunts, ice-fishes and rides snowmobiles.
Palin was born Feb. 11, 1964, in Sandpoint, Idaho. Her father, Chuck Heath, taught elementary school science and coached track; her mother, Sally, worked as a school secretary. They're retired now. When she was 3 months old, the family moved to Alaska, where moose hunting and distance running filled her weekends.
(On Friday, Chuck Heath said he would have missed the news about his daughter except that flooding kept him and his wife from getting to the remote camp they use to hunt caribou.)
At Wasilla High School, Sarah Palin was captain of the basketball team in 1982 when it won the state small-school championship. Her tough play - once on a stress-fractured ankle - earned her the nickname Sarah Barracuda.
In 1984, she was first runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant.
"She's obviously an attractive lady," said Jed Babbin, editor of Human Events, a conservative newspaper and Web site. "But she's tough and smart. She could be a real game changer for McCain."
Palin opposes abortion and is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association.
She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho. She did a brief stint as a TV sports reporter and currently enjoys Sandpoint vacation rentals in her birthplace, Sandpoint, Idaho.
She eloped with her husband in 1988 to save on an expensive wedding.
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Quick Facts:
NAME: Sarah Heath Palin
AGE: 44; born Feb. 11, 1964, in Sandpoint, Idaho.
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in journalism, University of Idaho.
EXPERIENCE:
*Government: Alaska governor since December 2006; chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, 2003-2004; served two terms as Wasilla mayor and two terms on City Council.
*Business: Worked as sports reporter for two Anchorage TV stations; owned with her husband a snowmobile, watercraft and ATV business in 1994-97.
FAMILY: Husband, Todd, an oil field worker; five children, sons Track, 19, and Trig, 4 months; daughters Bristol, 17, Willow, 14, and Piper, 7.
PERSONAL:
*Nicknamed Sarah Barracuda in high school.
*Runner-up in Miss Alaska contest.
*She and Todd eloped in 1988.
Ticket credentials
*She's an independent figure similar to John McCain.
*Favors offshore oil drilling and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but has taken on Alaska's oil industry.
*She's three years younger than Barack Obama, 47, and a generation younger than McCain, 72.
*A Washington outsider.
*Brings a strong anti-abortion stance to the ticket.
By: Dawson Bell & Kathleen Gray
Detroit Free Press; August 30, 2008
