WHO IS SARAH PALIN (Besides Being Gov. Of Alaska)?

Details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

Extract:

Palin was elected governor in 2006 after defeating incumbent governor Frank
Murkowski in the Republican primary and former Democratic governor Tony Knowles
in the general election. She was the youngest person, and the first woman, to
be elected governor of Alaska. She gained attention for publicizing ethical
violations by state Republican Party leaders. Before becoming governor, Palin
served two terms on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 to 1996, was elected
mayor of Wasilla in 1996, and ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in
2002.

Early life

Palin was born Sarah Louise Heath in Sandpoint, Idaho, the daughter of Sarah
(née Sheeran), a school secretary, and Charles R. Heath, a science teacher and
track coach. She has English, Irish, and German ancestry. Her family moved to
Alaska when she was an infant. The Heaths were avid outdoors enthusiasts; Sarah
and her father would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school, and
the family regularly ran 5 km and 10 km races.

At Wasilla High School in Wasilla, Alaska, Palin was the head of the school
Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She was the point guard and captain for the
basketball team. She helped the team win the Alaska small-school championship
in 1982, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds, despite a stress
fracture in her ankle. She earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her
intense play, and was the leader of team prayer before games.

In 1984, after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year, Palin
finished second in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant which won her a scholarship
to help pay her way through college. In the Wasilla pageant, she played the
flute and also won Miss Congeniality.

Palin holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho
where she also minored in politics. She married her high school sweetheart,
Todd Palin, on August 29, 1988, and briefly worked as a sports reporter for
local Anchorage television stations while also working as a commercial
fisherman with her husband. From 1994 until 1997, Palin and her husband owned a
snowmobile, watercraft, and all terrain vehicle business.


Pre-gubernatorial political experience

Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 to 1996. In 1996,
she challenged and defeated the incumbent mayor, criticizing wasteful spending
and high taxes. The ex-mayor and sheriff tried to organize a recall campaign,
but failed. Palin kept her campaign promises by reducing her own salary, as
well as reducing property taxes by 60%. She ran for reelection against the
former mayor in 1999, winning by an even larger margin. Palin was also elected
president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for Lieutenant Governor, coming in
second to Loren Leman in a four-way race. After Frank Murkowski resigned from
his long-held U.S. Senate seat in mid-term to become governor, Palin
interviewed to be his possible successor. Instead, Murkowski appointed his
daughter, then-Alaska State Representative Lisa Murkowski.

Governor Murkowski appointed Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and
Gas Conservation Commission, 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. 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. Palin filed formal complaints
against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who both
resigned; Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.


Personal life

Palin's husband, Todd, is a commercial fisherman and is one-eighth Yup'ik..
Outside the fishing season, Todd works for BP energy corporation at an oil
field on Alaska's North Slope and is a champion snowmobiler, winning the 2000-
mile "Iron Dog" race four times. The two eloped shortly after Palin graduated
from college; when they learned they needed witnesses for the civil ceremony,
they recruited two residents from the old-age home down the street. The Palin
family lives in Wasilla, about 40 miles north of Anchorage.

On September 11, 2007, the Palins' then eighteen-year-old son Track, eldest of
five, joined the Army. He now serves in an infantry brigade and will be
deployed to Iraq on September 11, 2008. She also has three daughters: Bristol,
Willow and Piper.

On April 18, 2008, while in office as governor, Palin gave birth to her second
son and fifth child, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Down syndrome. She returned
to the office three days after giving birth. Her decision to have the baby
after prenatal genetic testing revealed he had the disorder resulted in
admiration from the pro-life community.

Details of Palin's personal life have contributed to her political image. She
hunts, eats moose hamburger, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and owns a float
plane. 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. In December 2007, Palin posed for a photo spread in the
fashion magazine Vogue.