Sarah Palin, 44, is the first woman on a GOP ticket.
She got what Hillary Clinton couldn’t get from Obama.
She is the outsider.
The dark horse.
A journalist!
A choice to please the Republicans who still don’t like McCain.
As Andrew Sullivan says:
“Palin has helped McCain among Republicans, left Democrats unfazed, but moved the undecideds against him quite sharply.”
Less than two weeks ago, she explained her political journey to TIME magazine as follows:
I studied journalism in college and always had an interest in the newsroom, which was of course so often focused on politics and government. I studied sports reporting, and that’s how I started off in journalism. But even earlier than that, my dad was an elementary school teacher, so often our dinner-table conversations were about current events and about those things that an elementary school teacher teaches students — much about government and much about our nation, and so I had ingrained in me an interest in our government, how things worked. And then from there I just became more interested in more practical steps that I could take… [I] started off running for city council when I was very young in the town [Wasilla] where I had grown up and was elected to two terms on the city council. And then I realized to be really able to make a difference — not just being one of six of a body but to make a difference — I would have to run for the top dog position, and so I ran for mayor and was elected mayor for two terms. Then from there I was appointed an oil and gas commissioner in the state of Alaska, on the Alaska oil and gas conservation commission, had decided that there were changes, positive changes, that had to be ushered into our state government, decided to run for governor and did so, was successful, and here we are.
So, the big question is who is Sarah Palin?
How does a mother of five children who are still at home, one of whom is an infant born with Down syndrome, plan to manage the demands of a national candidacy or the White House?
Hillary Clinton said nice words about her:
“We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin’s historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain.
“While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate.”
