Birthday Boy picks Tomboy

Presidential candidate John McCain picks Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (born February 11, 1964) as VP.

She is the youngest person to hold this honor as well as the first woman to do so in the state's history.

Sarah's parents arrived in Alaska in 1964 to teach school in Skagway.

She earned her Journalism degree from the University of Idaho and worked in media and the utility industry before beginning her public service 14 years ago. (...) >>> (Conservapedia)

From 1992 to 1996, Ms. Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council her native Alaska town. In 1996, She challenged the incumbent mayor, in 1996 criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes. She ran for reelection against the former mayor in 1999, winning by an even larger margin. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. On becoming Mayor she kept her preelection promises by taking a major cut in salary and reducing property taxes by 60%.

Under Governor Murkowski she was appointed Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She served from 2003 to 2004 until resigning in protest over what she called the “lack of ethics” of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders, who ignored her complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest. Following her resignation, she went the state Republican party’s chairman, Randy Ruedrich, a fellow Oil & Gas commissioners, accusing him of doing work for the party on public time and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail. Tireless in her efforts to root out corruption Palin filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes. Both resigned as a result of her denunciations.

In spite of a lack of support by the party leadership, in spite of being vastly outspent by her Democrat opponent, she handily won the Governorship in 2006. True to her reputation as a reformer, true to her fighting spirit, she hit the ground running with a successful push for an ethics bill, she also attacked and shelved pork-barrel projects supported by fellow Republicans. In Governor Palin’s words, “Alaska needs to be self-sufficient, she says, instead of relying heavily on ‘federal dollars,’ as the state does today.” And so far she has kept her word, striving to reduce that dependency!

At the very outset of her administration, in efforts to reduce and cancel wasteful spending, Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account) by the former governor’s administration. In 2007, the jet was sold for $2.7 million.

She canceled an 11-mile gravel road outside of Juneau to a mine. In June 2007, the new Governor signed into law the largest operating budget in Alaska’s history ($6.6 billion). She used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history and managed to reduce it to nearly $1.6 billion.

SOCIAL STANDS

Abortion - On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son - out of 5 children - he was born with Down Syndrome. Palin refused to let the results of prenatal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. “I’m looking at him right now, and I see perfection,” Palin said. “Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?” The sancity of life, in her view, far outweighs any considerations of false shame or personal convenience!

Gay Marriage - She opposes same-sex marriage, though she has gay friends and is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination. Palin complied with a state Supreme Court order and signed them into law, though the previous administration had refused to do so. Palin’s sensitivity to her constituents was responsible for first veto used to block legislation that would have barred the state from granting benefits to the partners of gay state employees. Her veto granted State of Alaska benefits to same-sex couples. The veto occurred after Palin consulted with Alaska’s attorney general on the constitutionality of the legislation.

In short, while Sarah Palin is a staunch Conservative she has reached out and acted on behalf of groups that are traditionally outside the pale of Conservative politics. She has demonstrated no tolerance for wasteful projects. She fought against and reversed the cronyism inherent in the last administrBlogger: Politeia - Edit Post "Birthday Boy picks Tomboy"ation. Unanimously, she has been hailed as a reformer with unusual ethics in politics. She has indefatigably fought to clean up government and shown she will stand for no nonsense (...) >>> - Hat Tip: Chaim at "Freedom's Cost".

- Caption: Dr Sanity: "(...) "before she was on the national stage" and when no one was watching, Palin actually visited wounded American soldiers in Germany (hat tip: Ace)--something the Obamessiah somehow neglected to do when he was there" -

- PJM: "More to Sarah Palin Than Meets the Eye," by Rick Moran
- PJM: "It's Palin," (blegosphere reactions to the VP pick)
- McCain Campaign site, blog.
- NewsMax: "Palin Speaks to Newsmax About McCain, Abortion, Climate Change"

- Filed on Articles in "McCain-Palin Ticket" -