McCain picks Alaska Gov. Palin as running mate

Sen. John McCain has picked Alaska Gov. Sarah as his running mate, a senior McCain campaign official told CNN on Friday.

Palin, 44, who’s in her first term as governor, is a pioneering figure in Alaska, the first woman and the youngest person to hold the state’s top political job.

She catapulted to the post with a strong reputation as a political outsider, forged during her stint in local politics. She was mayor and a council member of the small town of Wasila and was chairman of the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates Alaska’s oil and gas resources, in 2003 and 2004.

Some Things About Governor Sarah Palin

• She defeated two so-called political insiders to win the governor’s job
• She supports drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge
• She chairs the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, a panel “that promotes the conservation and efficient recovery of domestic oil and natural gas resources while protecting health, safety and the environment”
• She is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association
• She likes to fish and hunt (and eats moose hamburger)
  
• Her husband’s name is Todd, who is an Eskimo, works for BP on the North Slope, and is a champion snowmobiler
• She has five kids, including a boy with Down Syndrome. Three days after he was born, she returned to work.

  

  She likes to give her children funny names like “Trig” and “Willow”. For example, the Palins named their first child Track, after the track and field season in which he was born. Her father asked what they would have named their son if he had been born during the basketball season. She answered “Hoop”

• She used to be a sports reporter as well as a commercial fisherman
• She admits that she used marijuana when it was legal in Alaska, but says that she did not like it.
• In 1984, she was second-place in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year. In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.

  

• She was a high school basketball player (and also ran track). They called her “Sarah Barracuda” for her competitiveness on the court
• Her father shot a grizzly and here’s a pic of her sitting on it. It won’t endear her to the PETA people, for sure.

  
  

• We think she has this “presidential” look about her that reminds us of President Laura Roslin from the new Battlestar Galactica show (as played by Mary McDonnell).
  
  By the way, there’s speculation that Roslin may be the “final cylon” but we’re pretty sure Palin isn’t.
• She’s pretty hot for a politician.
  

Some Sources used for this article: CNN, Wikipedia, Beldar Blog