Sarah Palin

Sarah Louise Heath Palin (born February 11, 1964), the 11^th Alaska state governor, is the U.S. Republican Party's vice presidential nominee for the 2008 United States presidential election. She was chosen by the party's presidential nominee, John McCain, in August 2008, and addressed the Republican National Convention on September 3 prior to her official nomination on September 4.

Before coming to national attention as McCain's running mate, Palin was elected governor of Alaska in 2006. Her political experience prior to this consisted of two terms as mayor/manager of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. about 9,000), from 1996 to 2002, and two terms as a Wasilla City Council member (1992-1996). She had also been a chair of the Alaska Conservation Commission which regulates oil and gas, and was president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

Vice-presidential campaign

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 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. Well-received in the hall, the speech was highly critical of McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, dismissing his experience as a community organizer; Palin contrasted Obama's work with the responsibility of being a governor.

Family background and education

Palin was born in Idaho but the family moved to Alaska when she was still a baby. She was baptized as a Roman Catholic but as a child was brought into the Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church. Ed Kalnins, senior pastor of the Wasilla Assembly of God, has spoken on various political issues from the position that opponents of Republican policy could be punished by God; Palin now worships at a related Assembly of God church in Juneau. 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. She has been praised by pro-life groups for not terminating her pregnancy after learning that Trig had Down Syndrome (trisomy 21).

On 1 September 2008, in response to an internet rumor that Trig was actually Bristol's son, Palin announced that Bristol was five months pregnant and had decided to keep the baby and marry the father. John McCain had been informed of this matter prior to choosing Palin as his running mate. In 2006, Palin had stated that she supported abstinence-only sex education.

Political ideology and positions

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.

Palin is a pentecostal evangelical Protestant, has been associated with dominionism, and supports the teaching of creationism in public schools, although hasn't 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, in the earlier career of Palin she had shown libertarian tendencies, in contrast of her later positions. For example, as a member of the city council, she vociferously spoke against tightening regulation on local bars through reducing hours allowed for bars to be opened, despite her church had taken a position against consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Environment

In spite of being an avid hunter and fisherman, Palin opposed protecting salmon from contamination due to mining operations, and as governor she had the State of Alaska file 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 committments 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. The Independent states that 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.[2] 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.[3] 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.

Foreign policy

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.

Business experience

From 1987-1989, Palin worked as a sports reporter. She has owned two businesses, a commercial fishing coperation 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.[4]

References

http://gov.state.ak.us/bio.html