Who Is Sarah Palin?

Posted on September 2, 2008

Republicans and Democrats alike are still reeling from John McCain's shocking announcement Friday that he was choosing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate. So what do we know about Sarah Palin?

--She's only been in office for one year and eight months.

--When asked about the Surge in Iraq, she responded "surge? What surge?" She has no stated foreign policy positions, other than a video of her speaking to her Church about the Iraq War being a mission from God.

--She supported the Bridge to Nowhere until it became a national joke, then she quietly allocated the funds elsewhere.

--Billed as a tax cutter, she actually raised the sales tax and instituted a windfall profits tax on oil companies when she was governor.

--She loves to hunt and has photos of her next to a bloody caribou she shot and of a bearskin of a bear she shot. She loves to eat moose stew and caribou burgers.

--She used to smoke pot (it is legal in Alaska, although not under federal law) but said she has stopped smoking. Her comment in an interview was "I can't say, like Bill Clinton, that I didn't inhale."

--Her husband had a DUI at 22, and is a champion snowmobiler. He works for an oil company in the winter and is a fisherman in the summer.

--She has five children, including a four month old infant who has Down's Syndrome.

--She is rabidly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in cases of incest or rape.

--She opposes all sex education and birth control for teens.

--She has an unwed 17 year old daughter who is four months' pregnant.

--She has a Canadian accent and a squeaky voice.

--She used to be a sports reporter.

--She likes midnight runs.

--She knows how to rock the sexy librarian look.

--She said in an interview that she doesn't know what a Vice President does.

--John McCain talked to her on the phone once before he invited her to Sedona, chatted with her and then offered her the job.

--She was raised in the Pentecostal Assembly of God church. She is an evangelical Christian.

--Reporters are still investigating whether it's true she first received a U.S. passport in 2007.

-- Her mother-in-law commented to a reporter "I don't see what she brings to the ticket."

Well, there you go. What else could we possibly need to know about a woman who is a heartbeat away from being the leader of the free world? Heckuva job, McCain.