Its Palin!

Alaska Gov. Palin to be Named as McCain Running Mate
by FOXNews.com
Friday, August 29, 2008

YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DAYTON, Ohio — John McCain will introduce Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate at an event here at noon Friday, senior campaign sources confirmed to FOX News.

Palin emerged earlier in the day as the hot name in the vice presidential sweepstakes after reports circulated that two short-listers — Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty — were out of the running.

Adding fuel to the Palin candidacy was a report that a charter aircraft from Anchorage owned by a McCain supporter had arrived at a small airport outside Dayton, Ohio, where McCain has scheduled a noon ET rally to announce his choice.

FOX News reported the jet flew to Flagstaff, Ariz., on Thursday before heading landing in Middletown, Ohio.

Palin is considered a rising star in the Republican Party. She is the state’s first female governor, the mother of five — and at 44 is its youngest chief executive.

The choice of Palin was kept under such tight wraps that even Palin’s mother said Friday morning that she had not yet heard from her daughter that she had been selected for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket.

Informed of the selection, a senior official with Barack Obama campaign questioned Palin’s executive experience, (The TrekMedic says "Pot, meet kettle, BO!)

“After making experience a central issue of the race, McCain picks, on his 72nd birthday, a person who 3 years ago was the part-time mayor of a city in Alaska with a population of about 8,000 - that’s 1/20th the size of Obama’s state Senate district. That virtually takes the experience argument off the table. She’s also complimented Obama’s energy plan and is under investigation in her own state for pressuring the firing of a relative from the state safety department,” the official said.

Earlier this month, the Anchorage Daily News reported that Palin has been under investigation after she her chief of staff, other aides and her husband had contacted the Public Safety Department about firing Palin’s brother-in-law, a state trooper who was in a custody battle with Palin’s sister. Palin said she did not know about the phone calls before they were made, but acknowledged that “such pressure could have been perceived to exist.”

Born in Idaho, Palin moved to Alaska with her parents, to Charles and Sally Heath, when she was 3 months old.

She grew up in Wasilla, just outside of Anchorage, and played on the Wasilla state championship girls’ basketball team. She was crowned Miss Wasilla in 1984 and was a runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant.

Palin studied journalism and political science at the University of Idaho and graduated in 1987. She eloped with her high school boyfriend, Todd Palin, in 1988 to save money on an expensive wedding. She helped out in her husband’s family commercial fishing business and appeared occasionally as a television sportscaster.

Palin won a seat on the Wasilla City Council in 1992 as a new face and a new voice, and by opposing tax increases. Four years later she was elected mayor at 32 by knocking off a three-term incumbent. At the end of her second term, party leaders encouraged her to enter the 2002 race for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Against veteran legislators with far more experience, Palin finished second by fewer than 2,000 votes, making a name for herself in statewide politics. She was elected Alaska’s youngest and first woman governor in 2006.

Sarah and Todd Palin have five children: boys Track, 19, and Trig, 4 months, and daughters Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7. Track Palin joined the Army last September and will deploy to Iraq on Sept. 11. Palin had kept her pregnancy with Trig a secret as she worked in the governor’s mansion, confirming only weeks before the birth that she was going to have a son who she knew would have Down syndrome. She returned to work in April three days after giving birth.

Palin will be the second female vice presidential candidate from a major political party. The first was New York Rep. Geraldine Ferrarro, who was Walter Mondale’s Democratic running mate in 1984.

FOX News confirmed Thursday that McCain had made his selection and would appear with his pick at the Dayton rally.

On Friday, sources told FOX News that Romney was not going to be McCain’s choice, even though the former Massachusetts governor is scheduled to appear at the Dayton rally.

And Pawlenty told a Minneapolis radio station that he was not going to be in Dayton for the McCain announcement.

“I’m going to be at the [Minnesota] state fair,” Pawlenty said on WCCO.

“I will not be in Dayton, Ohio, so I think that’s a fair assumption,” the Minnesota governor said when asked if this was an indication that he would not be McCain’s running mate.

“It was an honor to be considered,” he added.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who like Romney was a rival to McCain in the primaries, sent an e-mail to supporters on Thursday evening saying he would not be at the rally. Sources later told FOX News that Huckabee was not in the running.

The Trekmedic thinks:

This is a tremendous coup for McCain. Unlike his "experienced" opponent, McCain has picked a woman to be his VP. Palin is both a reformer and pro-lifer. A special tribute should go to RED NOVEMBER member Doug Gibbs who, early on, was a strong and tireless proponent of Mrs. Palin.