Sarah Palin

Sarah Louise Palin (born February 11, 1964, née Heath), the 11th Alaska state governor, was the U.S. Republican Party's vice presidential nominee for the 2008 United States presidential election. She has also been a chair of the Alaska Conservation Commission which regulates oil and gas, Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, and president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

On 3 July, 2009 Palin announced that she will step down as Governor of Alaska on 26 July, 2009.

Early Life and Family Background
Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho but the family moved to Alaska when she was still a baby. Palin graduated in 1982 from Wasilla High School and received a bachelors degree from the University of Idaho in communications-journalism in 1987. She has lived in Skagway, Eagle River and Wasilla. She married Todd Palin and together they have five children: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig.

Palin attended Wasilla High School. She was active as an athlete in cross country running and a member of the basketball team, winning the Alaska state championship with her team in 1982.

She graduated from high school in 1982 and enrolled at Hawaii Pacific College in Honolulu. After one semester, she transferred to a community college in Idaho and then attended two semesters at North Idaho College. In 1984, she won the Miss Wasilla Pageant, then finished third in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant receiving a college scholarship and the "Miss Congeniality" award.

In August 1984, Palin transferred to the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. After two semesters at UI, Palin returned to Alaska and attended Matanuska-Susitna College, a community college in Palmer, for one term in the fall of 1985. She returned to the University of Idaho in January 1986, where she spent three semesters completing her bachelor's degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism, graduating in May, 1987.

Business Career
From 1987-1989, Palin worked as a sports reporter. She has owned two businesses, a commercial fishing business from 1988-2007 and a sport vehicle rental business from 1994-1999. She has also been part of two failed start-ups, a marketing business and a car wash, the latter of which she failed to disclose in gubernatorial disclosure filings.

Political Career
Palin is politically conservative; in regard to abortion, she is pro-life/anti-abortion and a member of Feminists for Life. She is also a long-time member of the National Rifle Association. Although she vetoed a bill to deny benefits to gays, because she felt it was unconstitutional, she believes marriage should only be between a man and a woman, and is in favor of constitutional ammendments to deny gay rights. She presents herself as an anti-corruption leader, although during much of her vice-presidential campaign she was under investigation for allegedly using her office to fire Walter Monegan, the Public Safety Commissioner she appointed, for refusing to fire her former brother-in-law, Michael Wooten, an Alaskan state trooper ("Troopergate"). An initial report presented to the Alaskan Senate concluded that Palin was at fault for firing Monegan, but a subsequent inquiry by the Republican-appointed Personnel Board cleared the Governor of any wrongdoing, a day before the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

Governor of Alaska
Palin is a pentecostal evangelical Protestant, has been associated with dominionism, and supports the teaching of creationism in public schools, although she has not pushed this policy during her governorship in Alaska. Critics of Palin have expressed concern that her worldview has been shaped in absolutist terms by her religion, and that this has inappropriately influenced her political thinking on important foreign and domestic policy issues.

However, early in her career, Palin had shown libertarian tendencies, in contrast to her later positions. For example, as a member of the city council, she vociferously spoke against tightening regulations on local bars through reducing the hours allowed for bars to be opened, despite the fact that her church had taken a position against consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Environment
As governor of Alaska, Palin has opposed protecting salmon from contamination due to mining operations, and filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to overturn Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's decision to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. She is business-friendly and encourages the increased development of the timber, mining, drilling, and fishing industries in Alaska, including the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling.

In 2008, Palin signed a contract for a natural gas pipeline linking Alaska with the rest of the U.S., to a mixed reception. Her speech at the Republican National Convention in September explained the reason: "...we began a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence." However, the project remains on the drawing board and could take a decade to complete, with no firm commitments to begin construction as yet.

As governor, Palin allowed Chevron to triple the amount of toxic waste it dumped into Cook Inlet waters, despite concerns that beluga whales in surrounding waters have reduced from 1,300 to 350, the point of extinction.

Trish Rolfe of the Sierra Club's Alaska branch has stated that Palin's policies have been a disaster for Alaska's environment, saying "the idea that she stands up to the oil companies is a joke."

Palin has taxed oil company profits to give every man woman and child in Alaska a $2,000 entitlement check each year. According to critics, this has served, in effect, as "a vote-buying machine" for Palin among Alaskans.

Government Reform
As governor, Palin presented a wide-reaching ethics reform bill to the Alaska Legislature on January 24, 2007, that focused on tightening ethics rules for the executive branch. The bill tightens employments restrictions after leaving office, increases disclosure of conflicts of interests, enhances financial disclosures, bans gifts from lobbyists and improves electronic access. She favors cleaning up the Republican Party. In a July 2008 interview she stated, "It seems to me the GOP has just got to cleanse itself of all the pork barrel, corruption, lobbying, cash-for-favors that cost them the Congress back in November 2006." .

Although initially supporting the now infamous $400 million "Bridge to Nowhere" to the town of Ketchikan, Alaska during annual trips to Washington, D.C., she is now against the bridge and all Congressional earmarks. However, the state of Alaska has requested 31 earmarks, worth nearly $200 million, for the 2009 federal budget.

Palin has had some association with the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that seeks secession from the rest of the country. Palin attended a convention in Wasilla as mayor in 2000. The party claims that the Palins were members of the organization in the 1990s, despite records showing that Palin's membership of the Republican Party goes back to 1982. One other contact that Palin has had with the party was in 2008 when she recorded a goodwill message for another convention.

Taxes
Palin favors reducing or eliminating taxes that hinder business and "nuisance taxes", such as the tire tax. As governor she stated "I will propose reducing or eliminating burdensome taxes on our citizens like business license fees and the tire tax." As mayor she cut property taxes, increased the city sales tax by half a percent and put more money into public safety.

Critics, however, assert that the narrative of Palin as a tax-cutter does not account for all of the evidence. As mayor, Palin increased taxes to fund a controversial sports complex that is still mired with legal troubles, which resulted in charges of localist favoritism. As governor, she increased the basic tax rate on oil company profits from 22.5% to 25%, and included a windfall profits provision so that when oil prices went over $50 per barrel the tax rate would rise 0.2% for each dollar. In addition, she included a tax floor of 10% of the gross price of the crude. Palin uses a portion of these taxes to give every man woman and child in Alaska a $2,000 entitlement check each year, which has been describes as, "in effect, a vote-buying machine" for Palin among Alaskans.

Budget reform
In 2007, Palin used her veto as governor to cut $237 million from the Alaskan state budget in order to make it sustainable. In one case, this involved cancelling funding for electrical upgrades to the Canvas Art Studio in Juneau, run by a charity for people with special needs. Palin defended her decisionmaking as an example of her fiscal conservatism.

Iraq
Prior to becoming the vice presidential nominee, Palin stated in a 2007 interview that she had not focused much on the war in Iraq but wanted assurances from the Bush administration that an exit strategy existed. She also did not give a firm opinion of her position when visiting Alaskan troops in Kuwait (a trip that first required her to obtain a passport ). However, when addressing the Assembly of God in Wasilla in June 2008, she told the congregation that "...our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [American troops] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." In August, Palin referenced her son Track's deployment to Iraq as a U.S. infantryman in a further comment demanding a clear plan for the U.S. presence in the country:

"I’m a mom, and my son is going to get deployed in September, and we better have a real clear plan for this war. And it better not have to do with oil and dependence on foreign energy."

Death penalty
Palin favors the death penalty, declaring:

"'If the legislature passed a death penalty law, I would sign it. We have a right to know that someone who rapes and murders a child or kills an innocent person in a drive by shooting will never be able to do that again.."

Drugs
Palin admits that she smoked marijuana when it was legal under Alaska law, but not U.S. law, and stated "I can't claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled". She now favors strict drunk driving laws and opposes the legalization of marijuana and other drugs, and finds particular trouble with methamphetamines.

Resignation as Governor
On July 3, 2009, Palin announced that she would not be seeking a second term as governor and that she would be resigning on July 26. In her announcement, given during a press conference in her home town of Lucille, Alaska, she listed as reasons for resigning the legislative gridlock in Alaska resulting from open obstructionism by Democratic as well as estranged Republican legislators, mounting legal bills for numerous ethics complaints filed against her since September 2008, and the waste of public money caused by a high volume of FOIA requests. Of 18 ethics complaints filed against her so far (the latest three filed against her since her resignation announcement) 15 have been dismissed.

Her resignation announcement was considered by many on both sides of the political spectrum somewhat perplexing, and some doubted her real motives for resigning. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski criticized Palin for " [ abandoning ] her state and her consituents before her term has concluded." The Anchorage Daily News commented in an editorial that someone who could not handle a little bit of criticism and who seemed more intent on promoting her career on a national platform was not fit to be Governor of Alaska. Elsewhere in the country, the editorial board of the Wichita Eagle called Palin's resignation announcement "rambling" and criticized her comment that she did not want to be a lame duck governor. Levi Johnston, the former fiancé of Palin's daughter Bristol, commented that the Palin family is in financial trouble because of legal fees and is hoping to recoup some of the losses through a book deal.

Vice-presidential campaign
Palin was chosen by Republican presidential nominee John McCain as his running mate in his bid for the U.S. presidency in August 2008. She addressed the Republican National Convention on September 3 prior to her official nomination on September 4. Early media coverage of Sarah Palin's appointment to the McCain ticket focused on various controversies, including: an ongoing investigation into allegations that she tried to have her brother-in-law fired during an acrimonious divorce from her sister; the circumstances surrounding the birth of her fifth child; her initial backing for the Alaskan "Bridge to Nowhere" project and opposition to earmarks; her support for oil drilling and a gas pipeline in Alaska; and her lack of foreign policy experience. John McCain insisted that Palin had been thoroughly vetted before being offered the vice-presidential ticket, but nevertheless Republican lawyers were sent to Alaska days after the announcement to make a more thorough investigation. Palin made her first major address as nominee at the Republican National Convention on September 3.

Palin performed poorly in interviews on national television, appearing uninformed and underprepared on topics of national and international importance. While her first interview with Charles Gibson of ABC News, more than two weeks after her selection as McCain's running mate, met with mixed reviews, and the second interview (on the sympathetic right-leaning network Fox News) covered no new ground, both conservatives, such as National Review editor Rich Lowry, and mainstream outlets like Time criticized her performance in a series of interviews with Katie Couric of CBS News as dreadful. Many critics concluded that Palin was not prepared for the national stage and that John McCain did not vet her properly before picking her as his running mate. Prominent Republicans also questioned the rationale of the McCain campaign for not allowing the media free access to Palin at an early date.