Sarah Palin Biography

Summary

"Sarah Louise Heath Palin" (; born February 11, 1964) is 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.

Early life and education

Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, the third of four children of Sarah Heath (née Sheeran), 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. As a child, she would sometimes go moose hunting with her father before school, and the family regularly ran 5 km and 10 km races.

Palin attended Wasilla High School in Wasilla, located 29 miles (47 km) north of the city of Anchorage. She was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the school and the point guard and captain of the school's girls' basketball team. She helped the team win the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds of the game, despite having an ankle stress fracture. She earned the nickname 'Sarah Barracuda' because of her intense play.

Palin attended several undergraduate institutions. In 1982, she enrolled at Hawaii Pacific University but left after her first semester. She transferred to North Idaho 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 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 also helped in her husband's commercial fishing family business.

City council of Wasilla

Sarah Palin was elected twice to the city council of Wasilla, in 1992 and 1995. Palin says she entered politics because she was concerned that revenue from a new Wasilla sales tax would not be spent wisely.

She ran for Wasilla city council in 1992, at age 28, against John Hartrick, a local telephone company worker, on a promise to bring 'my progressive, competitive attitude' to the government. She won 530 votes to John Hartrick's 310. On the council, she successfully opposed a measure to curtail the hours at Wasilla's bars by two hours, which surprised Hartrick because she was then a member of a church that advocated abstinence from alcohol. After serving on the city council for three years, she ran for reelection against R'nita Rogers in 1995, winning 413 votes to Rogers' 185.

According to Laura Chase of Wasilla, and former Mayor John Stein, Palin as city councilwoman mentioned to her colleagues in 1995 that she saw the book "Daddy's Roommate" in the library and did not think it belonged there. The McCain-Palin campaign says that Palin was not advocating censorship. City of Wasilla Library records indicate that there was never a request for the library to remove the book, and indicate that no books were ever censored or banned.

Palin did not complete her second term on the city council because she ran for mayor in 1996. Throughout her tenure on the city council and the rest of her career, Palin has been a registered Republican.

Mayor of Wasilla

Palin served two terms (1996–2002) as mayor of Wasilla. At the conclusion of Palin's tenure as mayor in 2002, the town had about 6,300 residents, and it is now the fifth-largest population center in the state.

In 1996, Palin defeated three-term incumbent mayor John Stein, on a platform targeting wasteful spending and high taxes, and Stein says that she introduced abortion, gun rights, and term limits as campaign issues. Although the election was a nonpartisan blanket primary, the state Republican Party ran advertisements on her behalf.

First term

Shortly after taking office in October 1996, Palin eliminated the position of museum director and asked for updated resumes and resignation letters from top officials, including the police chief, public works director, finance director and librarian. Palin stated this request was to find out their intentions and whether they supported her. She temporarily required department heads to get her approval before talking to reporters, saying that they first needed to become acquainted with her administration's policies. She created the position of city administrator, and reduced her own $68,000 salary by 10%, although by mid-1998 this was reversed by the city council.

According to city librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, Palin inquired in October 1996 as to whether Emmons would object to library censorship. Palin later spoke publicly about the issue, saying she had no particular books or other material in mind for removal. No books were removed from the library.

Four months later, in January 1997, Palin fired Emmons and Police Chief Irl Stambaugh, stating that she did not feel they fully supported her efforts to govern the city. Following expressions of public support for Emmons and a personal meeting, Palin rescinded the firing of Emmons the next day, stating that her concerns had been alleviated, and also stating that Emmons agreed to support Palin's plan to merge the town's library and museum operations. Stambaugh, who along with Emmons had supported Palin's opponent in the election, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit alleging that his termination violated his contract, reflected gender discrimination, and was for political reasons; he said, for example, that he had opposed a bill in the state legislature that would lift some restrictions on carrying concealed weapons, a bill supported by Palin. The court dismissed his case, ruling that the mayor had the right to fire city employees for any reason, including a political one, or for no reason at all.

Despite a turbulent first year in office, Palin gained broad favor with Wasilla voters. She kept a jar with the names of Wasilla residents on her desk, and once a week she pulled a name from it and picked up the phone; she would ask: 'How's the city doing?' Using income generated by a 2% sales tax that was enacted before she was on the city council, Palin cut property taxes by 75% and eliminated personal property and business inventory taxes. Tapping municipal bonds, she made improvements to the roads and sewers and increased funding to the Police Department. She also oversaw new bike paths and procured funding for storm-water treatment to protect freshwater resources. At the same time, she reduced spending on the town museum and blocked construction of a new library and city hall. Palin ran for re-election against Stein in 1999 and won, with a majority of 74%. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

Second term

During her second term as mayor, Palin introduced a ballot measure proposing the construction of a municipal sports center to be financed by a 0.5% sales tax increase. The $14.7 million Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex was built on time and under budget, but the city spent an additional $1.3 million because of an eminent domain lawsuit caused by the failure to obtain clear title to the property before beginning construction. The city's long-term debt grew from about $1 million to $25 million through voter-approved indebtedness of $15 million for the sports complex, $5.5 million for street projects, and $3 million for water improvement projects. A city council member defended the spending increases as being caused by the city's growth during that time.

Palin also joined with nearby communities in jointly hiring the Anchorage-based lobbying firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh to lobby for federal funds. The firm secured nearly $8 million in earmarked funds for the Wasilla city government, and another $19 million for other public and private entities in the Wasilla valley area. Earmarks included $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project linking Wasilla and the ski resort community of Girdwood.

Term limits prevented Palin from running for a third term as mayor in 2002.

Post-mayoral years

In 2002, Palin ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a five-way Republican primary. The Republican ticket of U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski and Leman won the November 2002 election. When Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in December 2002 to become governor, he considered appointing Palin to replace him in the Senate, but instead chose his daughter, Lisa Murkowski, who was then an Alaskan state representative.

Governor Murkowski appointed Palin to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She chaired the Commission beginning in 2003, and served as Ethics Supervisor. Palin resigned in January 2004, protesting what she called the 'lack of ethics' of fellow Republican members.

After resigning, Palin filed a formal complaint against Oil and Gas Conservation Commissioner Randy Ruedrich, also the chair of the state Republican Party, accusing him of doing work for the party on public time and of working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating. She also filed a complaint against Gregg Renkes, a former Alaska Attorney General, accusing him of having a financial conflict of interest in negotiating a coal exporting trade agreement, while Renkes was the subject of investigation and after records suggesting a possible conflict of interest had been released to the public. Ruedrich and Renkes both resigned and Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.

From 2003 to June 2005, Palin served as one of three directors of 'Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.,' a 527 group designed to provide political training for Republican women in Alaska. In 2004, Palin told the "Anchorage Daily News" that she had decided not to run for the U.S. Senate that year, against the Republican incumbent, Lisa Murkowski, because her teenage son opposed it. Palin said, 'How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. Senator?'

Governor of Alaska

In 2006, running on a clean-government platform, Palin defeated incumbent Governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Her running mate was State Senator Sean Parnell.

Despite being outspent by her Democratic opponent, she won the gubernatorial election in November, defeating former governor Tony Knowles 48.3% to 40.9%. Palin became Alaska's first female governor and at 42, the youngest governor in Alaskan history. She is the state's first governor to have been born after Alaska achieved U.S. statehood, and the first not to be inaugurated in Juneau; she chose to have the ceremony held in Fairbanks instead. She took office on December 4, 2006 and has been very popular with Alaska voters. Polls taken in 2007 early in her term showed her with a 93% and 89% popularity among all voters. A poll taken in September 2008 shows her popularity at 68%. Palin declared that top priorities of her administration would be resource development, education and workforce development, public health and safety, and transportation and infrastructure development.

Palin had championed ethics reform throughout her election campaign. Her first legislative action after taking office was to push for a bipartisan ethics reform bill. She signed the resulting legislation in July 2007, calling it a 'first step' declaring that she remains determined to clean up Alaska politics.

Palin has sometimes broken with the state Republican establishment. For example, she endorsed Sean Parnell's bid to unseat the state's longtime at-large U.S. Representative, Don Young. Palin has publicly challenged Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the ongoing federal investigation into his financial dealings. Shortly before his July 2008 indictment, she held a joint news conference with Stevens, described by "The Washington Post" as being 'to make clear she had not abandoned him politically.'

Palin promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), where such development has been the subject of a national debate. In March 2007, Palin put forward an Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) to encourage building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope. In January 2008, Palin announced that TransCanada Corporation was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant. In August 2008, Palin signed a bill awarding TransCanada Pipelines $500 million in seed money and a license to build and operate the $26 billion pipeline to transport gas from the North Slope to the Lower 48 through Canada.

In 2006, Palin obtained a passport and in 2007 traveled for the first time outside of North America on a trip to Kuwait. There she visited the "Khabari Alawazem Crossing" at the Kuwait-Iraq border and met with members of the Alaska National Guard at several bases. On her return trip to the U.S., she visited injured soldiers in Germany.

Budget, spending and federal funds

In June 2007, Palin signed a record $6.6 billion operating budget into law. At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history. The $237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects, and reduced the construction budget to $1.6 billion. In 2008 Palin vetoed $286 million, cutting or reducing funding for 350 projects from the FY09 capital budget.

Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet, a purchase made by the Murkowski administration for $2.7 million in 2005 against the wishes of the legislature. In August 2007, the jet was listed on eBay, but the sale fell through, and the plane was later sold for $2.1 million through a private brokerage firm.

Palin lives in Juneau during the legislative session and lives in Wasilla and works out of offices in Anchorage the rest of the year. Since the office in Anchorage is far from Juneau, while she works there she is legally entitled to a $58 "per diem" travel allowance, which she has taken (a total of $16,951), and to reimbursement for hotels, which she has not, choosing instead to drive about 50 miles to her home in Wasilla. She also chose not to use the former governor's private chef. In response to criticism for taking the "per diem", and for $43,490 in travel expenses for the times her family accompanied her on state business, the governor's staffers said that these practices were in line with state policy, that Palin's gubernatorial expenses are 80% below those of her predecessor, Frank Murkowski, and that 'many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of 'state business' with the party extending the invitation.'

Federal funding

In her State of the State Address on January 17, 2008, Palin declared that it was time for Alaska to 'grow up' and not continue to rely on federal government earmarks. Alaska's federal congressional representatives cut back on pork-barrel project requests during Palin's time as governor; as of 2008, Alaska was still the largest per-capita recipient of federal earmarks, requesting nearly $750 million in special federal spending over two years.

Alaska State revenues doubled to $10 billion in 2008, and there is no sales tax or income tax. For the 2009 budget, Palin gave a list of 31 proposed federal earmarks or requests for funding, totaling $197 million, to Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. During 2008, Palin's decreasing support for federal earmarks was the leading source of friction between herself and the state's congressional delegation; according to her staff, she has requested $95 million to $150 million fewer earmarks or funding requests during each of her years in office than her predecessor Frank Murkowski requested in his last year.

'Bridge to Nowhere' and Knik Arm Bridge

for use of 'Bridge to Nowhere' in the campaign.

In 2005 and 2006, before Palin became governor, two proposed bridges gained national attention as symbols of pork-barrel spending: the Gravina Island Bridge, proposed to connect the 8,000 residents of Ketchikan to the Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island; and the Knik Arm Bridge, proposed to cross Cook Inlet, north of Anchorage, Alaska. The Gravina Island Bridge proposal became nicknamed the 'Bridge to Nowhere' because of the island's population of 50. (Rarely, the term 'bridges to nowhere' has been used to refer to both proposals.)

The goal of the Gravina project, according to the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities, was to 'provide better service than the existing ferry to the airport' which serves 350,000 passengers per year, and 'allow for development of large tracts of land on the island.' The second bridge is a $600 million project to open up development and provide an alternate link from Anchorage to Wasilla; the bridge is being evaluated by officials as a possible threat to nearby beluga whales.

In 2005, a $442-million Congressional earmark for bridge construction was included in an early version of a 2006 omnibus spending bill, but was strongly criticized. Congress stripped the earmark from the bill before final passage in November 2005 and instead gave transportation money to Alaska with no strings attached.

In 2006, Palin ran for governor with a 'build-the-bridge' plank in her platform, saying she would 'not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project ... into something that's so negative.' She criticized the use of the word 'nowhere' as insulting to local residents and urged speedy work on building the bridges 'while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.'

In September 2007, Palin said that Congress had 'little interest in spending any more money' on the Gravina Bridge due to what she called 'inaccurate portrayals of the projects'. She directed Alaskan officials to look for an alternative way to connect Gravina Island with the mainland. Palin opted not to return the $442 million in federal transportation funds, and spent $25 million in federal funds on a Gravina Island access road to where the bridge would have gone; Palin's spokesperson said that the island road would open territory for development, and according to Alaskan state officials, the state went ahead with building the road because the $25 million would otherwise have had to be returned to the Federal government. As of June 2008, Palin continued to support the Knik Arm Bridge idea but she has ordered a funding and feasibility review.

Gas pipeline

In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state's North Slope. This negated a deal by the previous governor to grant the contract to a coalition including BP. The bill was approved with only a single dissenting vote, and in June, Palin signed it into law. On January 5, 2008, Palin announced that a Canadian company, TransCanada Corporation, was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant. In August 2008, Palin signed a bill into law giving the state of Alaska authority to award TransCanada Pipelines $500 million in seed money and a license to build and operate the $26-billion pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Continental United States through Canada. According to "Newsweek", which describes the project as Palin's main achievement as governor, the pipeline will be built only if Canadian authorities can strike a deal with indigenous tribes of the First Nation, who are accusing Palin and other pipeline proponents of treating them with disrespect by not consulting with them.

Public Safety Commissioner dismissal

Sarah Palin dismissed Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan on July 11, 2008, citing performance-related issues, such as not being 'a team player on budgeting issues.' Monegan said that he had resisted subtle but persistent pressure from the Governor, her husband, and her staff, including State Attorney General Talis Colberg, to fire Palin's ex-brother-in-law, state trooper Mike Wooten; Wooten was involved in a child custody battle with Palin's sister that included an alleged death threat against Palin's father. Monegan told the Palins that there was nothing he could do because the matter was closed. Monegan initially said he was not certain why he was dismissed but that his refusal to fire Wooten could have been connected, and he later asserted that the dispute over Wooten was a major reason for his firing. Palin stated on July 17 that Monegan was not pressured to fire Wooten, or dismissed for not doing so.

The Alaska Legislature hired an investigator on August 1 to review the Monegan dismissal; the atmosphere was bipartisan and Palin pledged to cooperate. After ordering her own internal investigation, Palin acknowledged on August 13 that 'pressure could have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware of it,' and she said 'I apologize to Alaskans for this distraction.' Palin announced that officials had contacted Monegan or his staff about two dozen times regarding Wooten, that she had only known about some of those contacts, that many of those contacts were appropriate, and that she had not fired Monegan because of Wooten, who remained employed as a state trooper. She placed an aide on paid leave due to one tape-recorded contact that she deemed improper.

Several weeks after the start of what the media referred to as 'troopergate', Palin was chosen as John McCain's running mate. Then, an opponent of hers in the legislature speculated about damage to her administration, subpoenas were issued, and Palin stopped cooperating. On September 1, Palin asked the legislature to drop its investigation, saying that the state Personnel Board had jurisdiction over ethics issues. Palin also asked the Board to review the matter. On September 5, legislators set an October 10 completion date. On September 15, Palin filed arguments of 'no probable cause' before the Personnel Board. Monegan accused the Governor of 'not telling the truth' on national television about why he was fired. On September 19, the Governor's husband and several state employees refused to honor subpoenas, the validity of which were disputed by Talis Colberg, Palin's appointee as Alaska's Attorney General.

Predator control

In 2007, Palin supported the Alaska Department of Fish and Game policy allowing the hunting of wolves from helicopters as part of a predator control program intended to increase moose populations. In March 2007, Palin's office announced that a bounty of $150 per wolf would be paid to the 180 volunteer pilots and gunners, to offset fuel costs. Wildlife activists sued the state, and a state judge declared the bounty illegal on the basis that a bounty would have to be offered by the Board of Game and not by the Department of Fish and Game.

2008 Vice-presidential campaign

On August 29, 2008, in Dayton, Ohio, Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, announced that he had chosen Palin as his running mate. McCain met Palin in a February National Governors Association, and it is reported that she made a favorable impression on McCain. He called Palin on August 24 to discuss the possibility of having her join him on the ticket. On August 27, Palin visited McCain's vacation home near Sedona, Arizona, where she was offered the position of vice-presidential candidate. Palin was the only prospective running mate who had a face-to-face interview with McCain to discuss joining the ticket that week. Nonetheless, Palin's selection was a surprise to many as speculation had centered on other candidates, such as Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, United States Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, and former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.

Palin is the second woman to run on a major U.S. party ticket. The first was Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1984, who ran with former vice-president Walter Mondale.

On September 3, 2008, Palin delivered a 40-minute acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention that was watched by more than 40 million viewers and was well-received by the crowd.

In her nomination acceptance speech and on the campaign trail, Palin has often said: 'I told the Congress 'thanks, but no thanks,' on that Bridge to Nowhere.' Although Palin was originally a main proponent of the Gravina Island Bridge, McCain-Palin television advertisements claim Palin 'stopped the Bridge to Nowhere.' These claims have been widely questioned or described as misleading or exaggerations by 'virtually every media group in the US.' "Newsweek" remarked: 'Now she talks as if she always opposed the funding.'

In September 2008, a hacker accessed a Yahoo! email account Palin uses, hoping to 'derail her campaign,' and precipitating an investigation by the FBI and Secret Service.

Palin is scheduled to participate in a vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden on October 2, 2008, a month before the election on November 4.

Reception

A series of polls suggested that Palin gave a boost to John McCain's campaign and excited the Republican base. The McCain campaign briefly reversed its poll deficit, and Palin may have boosted support among white mothers. A WSJ/NBC News poll taken on September 9 indicated that 34% of respondents were more likely to vote for McCain as a result of the Palin pick, while 25% were less likely. McCain chose Palin in part due to her potential to rally Christian conservatives behind his campaign.

Since Palin was largely unknown outside of Alaska prior to her selection by McCain, her personal life, positions, and political record became the focus of intense media attention and scrutiny. Some Republicans felt that Palin was being subjected to unreasonable media coverage, a sentiment referenced by Palin in her acceptance speech. A poll taken immediately after the Republican convention found that slightly more than half of Americans believed that the media was 'trying to hurt' Palin with negative coverage.

Polls conducted immediately after the speech found that Palin was viewed favorably by a majority of respondents. Palin was also a draw with Catholic voters. Polling two weeks after the Republican convention indicates that the main enduring effect of Palin's selection had been to excite the Republican base.

Palin appeared on the covers of "Newsweek" and "Time", which had been critical of the level of media access to Palin allowed by the McCain campaign. Since announcing Palin as McCain's runningmate, McCain's campaign has restricted press access to Palin, allowing three one-on-one interviews and no press conferences with her. Palin's first major interview, with Charles Gibson of ABC News, met with mixed reviews. Her interview five days later with Fox News's Sean Hannity went smoothly, with Hannity focusing on many of the same questions from Gibson's interview. However, Palin's performance in her third interview, with Katie Couric of CBS News, was widely criticized, prompting a decline in her poll numbers, concern among Republicans that she was becoming a political liability, and calls from some conservative commentators for Palin to resign from the Presidential ticket. Following this interview, some Republicans, including Mitt Romney and William Kristol, questioned the McCain campaign's strategy of sheltering Palin from unscripted encounters with the press. Palin was reported to have been preparing intensively for her debate with Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Joe Biden; some Republicans have suggested that Palin's performance in the interviews may benefit her in the debate by lowering expectations.

Political positions

Palin has described the Republican Party platform as 'the right agenda for America,' because of its 'respect for equality and respect for life and an acknowledgment that it is individual Americans and American families who can make better decisions for ourselves than government can ever make for us,' and has stated that 'individual freedom and independence is extremely important to me and that's why I'm a Republican.'

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. Palin has called herself 'as pro-life as any candidate can be' and has called abortion an 'atrocity.'

Palin believes that abortion should be banned in nearly all cases, including rape and incest, except if the life of the mother is endangered. While governor she supported bills to require parental consent for abortion on minors, and to ban partial birth abortion; both measures were defeated. When asked by ABC's Charles Gibson whether she felt Roe v. Wade should be overturned, she answered, 'I think it should and I think that states should be able to decide that issue... I am pro-life.' Pressing further, Gibson asked, 'John McCain would allow abortion in cases of rape and incest. Do you believe in it only in the case where the life of the mother is in danger?' and Palin responded, 'That is my personal opinion.' She is also a member of Feminists for Life. She supports sex education in public schools that encourages abstinence but also discusses birth control.

Palin has promoted oil and natural gas resource exploration in Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), and initiated a lawsuit over the federal listing of the polar bear and Cook Inlet beluga whale as endangered species.

On global warming, Palin said that 'a changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.' She later said that 'man's activities certainly can be contributing to the issue' and that 'John McCain and I agree that we gotta do something about it.'

Regarding foreign policy, Palin supports preemptive military action in the face of an imminent threat, and supports U.S. military operations in Pakistan. She declined to give a yes or no answer regarding whether U.S. military forces should make cross-border attacks into Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government. She supports NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, and affirms that if Russia invaded a NATO member the United States should meet its treaty obligations.

Personal life

In 1988, Sarah eloped with Todd Palin, her childhood sweetheart, reportedly because she knew her parents 'couldn't afford a big white wedding.' Todd Palin works for the London-based oil company BP as an oil-field production operator and owns a commercial fishing business. The Palins have an estimated combined net worth of $1.2 million.

Palin describes herself as hockey mom. The Palins have five children: sons Track (b. 1989) and Trig (b. 2008), and daughters Bristol (b. 1990), Willow (b. 1995), and Piper (b. 2001). Track enlisted in the U.S. Army on September 11, 2007, and subsequently was assigned to an infantry brigade. He and his unit deployed to Iraq in September 2008, for 12 months. On September 1, 2008, Palin announced that Bristol was five months pregnant and intends to keep the baby and marry Levi Johnston, the father of the child. Palin's youngest child Trig was prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome.

Palin was born into a Catholic family. When she was 4 years old, her family joined the Wasilla Assembly of God, which belongs to a Pentecostal association of churches. Palin attended the Wasilla Assembly of God until age 38. When in Juneau, she attends the Juneau Christian Center. Her current home church is the Wasilla Bible Church, an independent congregation. Palin described herself in an interview as a 'Bible-believing' Christian. After the Republican National Convention, a spokesperson told CNN that Palin 'doesn't consider herself Pentecostal.'

In a commencement address to a graduating class of ministry students at Wasilla Assembly of God in June 2008, Governor Palin spoke in religious terms about the Iraq war and the Alaska-Canada oil pipeline, leading some political observers to question whether her politics intersect with her religous beliefs. Palin herself has stated that she would not allow her personal religious beliefs to dictate her political positions.