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Do you see the picture? Isn’t she gorgeous? Believe me or not, this gorgeous lady will become the next vice president for United States if she and John McCain win the presidential election. And you know what, she had ever been a runner-up Miss Alaska. I guess, let’s find out who she really is…

Sarah Louise Heath Palin was born February 11, 1964, the third of four children of Sarah Heath, a school secretary, and Charles R. Heath, a science teacher and track coach. Her father is descended from English and German settlers. The family moved to Alaska when she was an infant. She is now the governor of Alaska and the Republican vice-presidential nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election.

She was a member of the Wasilla, Alaska, city council from 1992 to 1996 and mayor from 1996 to 2002. After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor of Alaska in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004. She was elected governor of Alaska in November 2006 by defeating the incumbent governor in the Republican primary and a former two-term Democratic governor in the general election. She is the youngest person to have been elected to the position, and Alaska’s first female governor.

On August 29, 2008, Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain announced he had chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate. She was nominated at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Palin is the first woman and the first Alaskan to run on the Republican Party’s presidential ticket.

Palin attended several colleges and universities. In 1982, she enrolled at Hawaii Pacific College but left after her first semester. She transferred to North Idaho community college, where she spent two semesters as a general studies major. From there, she transferred to the University of Idaho for two semesters. During this time Palin won the Miss Wasilla Pageant beauty contest, then finished third (second runner-up) in the Miss Alaska pageant, at which she won a college scholarship and the “Miss Congeniality” award. She then left the University of Idaho and attended Matanuska-Susitna community college in Alaska for one term. The next year she returned to the University of Idaho where she spent three semesters completing her Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism, graduating in 1987.

In 1988, she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV and KTVA-TV in Anchorage, Alaska, and for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman as a sports reporter. She is married to Todd Palin who she met in high school. Todd is a lifelong Alaskan, a commercial fisherman, a production operator on Alaska’s North Slope, a proud member of the United Steelworkers Union and a world champion snow machine racer. The Palins have five children: Track and Trig, and Bristol, Willow, and Piper.

On December 4, 2006, Governor Sarah Palin made history as the first woman to become her state’s chief executive. As the 11th governor of Alaska, she has successfully fought the special interests, the lobbyists, the Big Oil companies and the good ol’ boys network to reform a system that had bred corruption in her state.

Under her leadership, the state invested $5 billion in savings, overhauled education funding, and implemented the Senior Benefits Program to provide support for low-income older Alaskans. She created Alaska’s Petroleum Systems Integrity Office to oversee and maintain oil and gas equipment, facilities and infrastructure, and the Climate Change Subcabinet to prepare a climate change strategy for Alaska. Well, you know what it is all about when global warming has reached the politic issue, right?

Moreover, Palin is a social conservative. A lifetime member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), Palin believes the right to bear arms includes handgun possession, and has advocated gun safety education for youth. She supports capital punishment. Palin supports allowing the discussion of creationism in public schools, but says it does not have to be part of the curriculum. Palin opposes same-sex marriage and supported a non-binding referendum for an Alaskan constitutional amendment to deny state health benefits to same-sex couples; however, early in her gubernatorial term she vetoed such a bill, citing its unconstitutionality. Palin has called herself “as pro-life as any candidate can be” and has called abortion an “atrocity.” Such a hard situation for women, I guess.

So, if you a voter, have you decided who will you choose then? All in your hands…

image credit: current.com

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