Sarah Palin

American politician and Republican candidate for the US Vice President in the 2008 election. Prior to being selected by John McCain (candidate for President), she was Governor of Alaska for 18 months and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

Palin's family moved to Alaska when she was three months old. She is is third-born among four siblings born to Chuck and Sally Heath, a teacher and a school secretary respectively.

In high school she was a star basketball player nicknamed "The Barracuda" and went on to enter a local beauty pageant, ultimately placing second in the statewide competition. After attending three other colleges (and the University of Idaho for a previous term), Palin graduated in 1987 from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism and a minor in political science.

On 29 August 1988, she married her high school sweetheart Todd Palin, an athletic man who has worked as a commerical fisherman and part-time oilman. He won the Iron Dog snowmobile race (nearly 2000 miles long) four times. An athlete herself, she ran at least one marathon and stays physically active. As she built her family, she became active in the PTA (parent-teacher association) and a citizens' council in Wasilla, her home town.

She ran for mayor in 1996 and served two terms, leaving in 2002 because of term limits on the office. That year she waged an unsuccessful bid for the position of lieutenant governor but landed an assignment on the state energy commission. She subsequently quit her post citing corruption and cronyism. In 2006 she waged a successful bid for the state Governor's office.

Palin is the attractive mother of five children: a boy Track born in 1989 (one source gave April 1989); daughter Bristol (1990); daughter Willow (1995); daughter Piper (2001) and son Trig, born a month prematurely with Downs syndrome on 18 April 2008 at 6:30 AM local time (according to People magazine) at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer, Alaska.