Looks as though McCain's VP pick could beat Obama on the basketball court. "Sarah Barracuda" Palin will dazzle him with her free throw, beauty and competence--a woman of many talents:
>Palin was the point guard and captain for the Wasilla High School Warriors, in Wasilla, Alaska, when they won the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982; she earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play.[3] [4] She played the championship game despite a stress fracture in her ankle, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds Palin, who was also the head of the school Fellowship of Christian Athletes, would lead the team in prayer before games
In 1984, Palin was first runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year, winning a scholarship to help pay her way through college. In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.
Details of Palin's personal life have contributed to her political image. She hunts, eats moose burgers, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and owns a float plane.[6][7] Palin holds a lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association. She admits that she used marijuana when it was legal in Alaska, but says that she did not like it.[8]
On September 11, 2007, the Palins' son Track joined the Army. Eighteen years old at the time..
Then-Governor Murkowski appointed Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission[15], where 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 whistleblowing complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest.[3] After she resigned, she exposed the state Republican party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, one of her fellow Oil & Gas commissioners (who was accused of doing work for the party on public time, and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail).[16] Palin filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who both resigned; Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.[3]
Governor Palin with Alaska's At-large U.S. Representative Don YoungIn 2006, Palin, running on a clean-government campaign, executed an upset victory over then-Gov. Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary.[3] Despite the lack of support from party leaders and being outspent by her Democratic opponent, she went on to win the general election in November 2006, defeating former Governor Tony Knowles.[3]
Highlights of Governor Palin's tenure include a successful push for an ethics bill, and also shelving pork-barrel projects supported by fellow Republicans. Palin successfully killed the Bridge to Nowhere project that had become a nationwide symbol of wasteful earmark spending.[13][17] "Alaska needs to be self-sufficient, she says, instead of relying heavily on 'federal dollars,' as the state does today."[6]
She has challenged the state's Republican leaders.< |
