Published: August 29, 2008 10:21 pm         

McCain's surprise choice is a character

What a character! That’s Sarah Palin, Republican vice president nominee, if you haven’t heard. Google her name and you will be amazed at her life story.



She was born to parents who were teachers and avid runners; is a devout Christian; was a point guard on a state championship basketball team; was chosen Miss Wasilla; finished second in the Miss Alaska contest; plays the flute; has a degree in journalism from the University of Idaho; was a sports reporter; eloped with her high school sweetheart, who is a Native American, commercial fisherman, union member and oil worker; is the mother of five children, the youngest born in April (that child has Down syndrome); her oldest son is in the Army and will deploy to Iraq; she owns her own float plane; she is a moose hunter and lifetime member of the National Rifle Association; she used marijuana when it was legal to do so in Alaska -— but she didn’t like it; she turned in the state’s GOP chairman for fraud; she was mayor of Wasilla before ousting the sitting Republican governor in a primary on a reform platform and went on to win the office against a former governor; she is in favor of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; she is being investigated for firing the state’s public safety director for his alleged refusal to fire her former brother-in-law during a messy divorce process; and she is a very good public speaker.



That’s the synopsis of the life of Sarah Palin, who is now the first woman to run on a Republican presidential ticket.

John McCain was expected to pick someone from a traditional Republican background who had years of political experience. He has shaken up the campaign with the Palin pick.

Now we know all the players in this year’s presidential election. It will be Democrat Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden against Republican Sen. John McCain and a female governor from Alaska. This election promises to be the most dramatic political contest since Theodore Roosevelt tried to recapture the office in 1912 by creating his Bull Moose party.