Sarah Palin

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Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Heath, popular known as Sarah Palin from Sandpoint, Idaho in the United States on 11th February 1964. Her ethnicities are German English, Irish, and remotely Scottish ad Dutch. Sarah Palin placed the state of Alaska on the world map when she stood as Vice Presidential nominee for the United States presidential election in the year 2008. She is born of Heath Richard Charles and Sheeran Heath and married to Todd Palin. She became the first person from Alaska on the national ticket on one of the largest political party in the country. She was also the first woman nominated on the Republican ticket for the position of Vice Presidency. Moreover, she authored a book, Going Rogue, which has sold numerous copies. She is an icon of the state fist elected to the Wasilla City Council in the year 1992, and finally culminated to become the city’s mayor in the year 1996. In the year 2003, Sarah Palin was appointed by the state’s government to be the chairperson of the State’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, after an unsuccessful stint running for the State’s Lieutenant Governor. In the year 2006, Sarah Palin became the first woman and youngest person to be elected to be the Governor of the state of Alaska, holding the office, until her own termination in July 2009. Since her resignation from a political office in the year 2009, Palin has enjoyed a vibrant political activity that matches her celebrity status campaigning and endorsing different individuals for the Tea Party.

Recently she was on the television providing political commentary on the Republican-leaning Fox News. Early last year, she premiered on a TV show, dubbed Amazing America with Sarah Palin. In mid last year, she launched a web-based news network, dubbed the Sarah Pain News Channel. Her family initially lived in Skagway within the state of Alaska, and later moved to Eagle River and then settling in Wasilla in 1972.
She was a renowned flute player in the junior school band; she was a renowned adherent becoming the head of a group of Christian athletes as well being a staunch member of the Wasilla High School girls’ basketball and athletic teams. In her senior year, she earned a nickname Barracuda for her aggressive point guard basketball displays in 1982, which earned her and her teammates the Alaska state championship (Sarah 4). In 1984, she became third in a Miss Wasilla city beauty pageant. She attended a number of institutions of higher learning immediately after graduating from high school in 1982 beginning with the University of Hawaii that is based in Hilo. Later she moved to the Hawaii Pacific University based in Honolulu; unfortunately, she only spent a semester in the fall of the year 1982. After that she transferred to a college in Idaho, specifically, the North Idaho College, a sought of community college in the spring a year later. Then she formally enrolled at the University of Idaho that is in Moscow for another academic year, beginning August a year later. Later she attended college in Alaska at Matanuska-Susitna College in Alaska, and there aft earned a bachelor’s degree in communication majoring in journalism in the year 1987, from the University of Idaho. An Alumni Association of the North Idaho College awarded Sarah Palin a distinguished alumni achievement award in mid-2008.
Immediately after completing her degree, she got a job as a sportscaster for KTVA-TV and KTUU-TV in the city of Anchorage, and later as a reporter of spots for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, and which in a way seemed to have fulfilled an earlier held ambition. She later was described to have run off with what many biographers describe as her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin, after giving birth to their first born earlier in 1989 April, and she was instrumental in helping Todd Palin conducting his fishing business.
However, the world actually knows more of Sarah Palin, and by extension from her time in politics, especially consequent to being named as John McCain running mate in 2008 republican democratic ticket for the presidential election. After that, she became a constant feature in the media spotlight during her stint as governor of Alaska from the year 2006 to 2009. However, he ascends to national and international political stardom could be traced back to her humble roots in Wasilla City Council, when she won 530 votes to her opponent’s 310 votes for a seat on the council. It is noteworthy to point out that Sarah has aligned herself with the conservative faction, the Republican Party since her first registration in 1982. Her political opinions have been described as far-right a form of solid political opinions and offering strong criticisms of the current left-leaning political administration of Barrack Obama.
Her leadership journey did not just halt after ascending to the Wasilla city council in 1982, rather, she went ahead to campaign for a mayor’s position in 1996, and eventually won it defeating the incumbent by 251 votes. Her campaigns were then centered on core issues affecting the residents of Wasilla, and they included the following, gun rights, abortion, term limits, and they seem to have carried the day. In 1999, she re-elected for a second term, and in the same year, a caucus of mayors in the state elected her to be president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. She was very controversial throughout her two terms, a feature that was prevalent her national political and gubernatorial campaigns (Conroy and Shushannah 88). Sarah Palin had spats with a local newspaper in Wasilla, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, whom she accused of engaging in personal innuendos. During the first term, the council generated income by a sales tax of 2%, she went ahead to slash property taxes by three-quarters and removed business inventory and personal property taxes. The council through her leadership used municipal bonds to built roads and sewage system and availed more funds to the Wasilla Police Department. She even oversaw the development of new paths for bikes as well as availing new funding for stormwater management that protected freshwater sources. She slashed the budget for Wasilla’s museum and avoided the talk of new city hall and another library.
During her second stint that began in October 1996, the governor controversially removed the position of museum director and demanded for resignation letters from a host of department heads who had been loyal to the former mayor before her ascension to the position in the year 1992. Her controversial decision also included demanding that department heads were requiring her approval before engaging the press, a fact she validated with the jibe that the officers needed to get acquainted with her policies. Later she had her $68000 a year salary reduced by 10%, and a move later reversed by Wasilla City Council in June 1998.
Gubernatorial Position
In the year 2006, Sarah Palin easily defeated her compatriot in Republican primary Governor Frank Murkowski and defeated Democratic candidate for the gubernatorial seat, Tony Knowles by a margin of 7.4% over the latter. Her victory was historically significant, as she became the youngest governor in the state at the age of 42, as well as, the first female governor of the state. Moreover, she became the first governor of the state to be born after the state had joined the United States, as well as being inaugurated in Fairbanks and not the traditional Juneau. She officially assumed office on 4 December 2006, and she was described as an extremely popular with voters in Alaska, and certain opinion polls conducted in the year 2007 indicated that her popularity was 93%, earning a tag of the most popular governor in the country. Her popularity remained sky high throughout her stint as the governor of the state, and only waning after being a joining John McCain in presidential election later in the year 2008; however, the reports still indicated more than fifty percent positive popularity ratings.
Her administration identified some social priorities that would be earmarked for continued social development. These included resource development, workforce development, education, public health and sanitation, logistics and infrastructure developments. However, her vibrant campaigns for ethics, transparency and openness endeared her to the people of the state, which lead her to push for a nonpartisan ethics reform law. Later she announced that she would lead a cleanup of the state’s politics. Frequently she broke with the rank and file of her party ethos and propositions; for instance, she campaigned for Parnell to unseat Don Young, a long-serving Unites States Representative, later she did not shy away from publicly challenging the then United States Senator Ted Stevens to declare his financial activities to the federal investigators.
She championed for the development of natural gas and oil in her State, and which included the controversial drilling for oil and gas in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Her stint as the governor of Alaska was even marked by a greater level of controversy that ranged from cuts, to her activities as a governor, and others that involved persistent ethics investigations. She decided to resign on 3 July 2009, when it became apparent that her work mostly consisted of defending herself against ethical impropriety as well as spending a significant portion of their personal resources in defense. Apparently, all the innuendos were invisible to the media, but they had a great impact on her political and personal life.
National Politics
Americans love the underdog factor, and her appointment as John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee for the 2008 national presidential election was major because she was an unknown person outside in national politics. Moreover, Palin was a young firebrand politics and were rise to fame through Alaska would seemingly mirrored democrats own success stories in Obama. Furthermore, her presence aiding McCain to capture national political power could have been boosted by enthusiasm from amongst a right-wing religious faction of the Republican Party. John McCain was persistently advised by the rank and file of the Republican Party to settle on Sarah Palin for these reasons and many others. Reports indicate that Jon McCain had met the youthful Alaskan governor earlier at a National Governor’s Association in Washington, and had been impressed by her character and drive. He officially selected Sarah Palin as his running mate announcing the same on 29 August 2008, amongst a sea of potential heavyweights that included Mitt Romney, Massachusetts Governor amongst others.
Palin attracted a lot of media attention because she was largely unknown nationally, and her personal life as political records attracted heavy media inquiry. The pregnancy of her daughter, Bristol was a subject of intense media discussions, and she became a recipient of lopsided media coverage, a feat corroborated by her Republican Party members. Her acceptance speech was watched by up to forty million people, and well received by the general populace. Americans were sympathetic to the Alaskan governor, with a report indicating that American believing that the media was out to hurt Sarah Palin with negative coverage (Katz 41).
The media coverage intensified during the campaigns in 2008, a lot of issues and controversies constantly circulated in the media. First, her position as the gubernatorial candidate and that of vice presidential candidate became an issue, and more so in her native state. She later graced international covers of world-renowned magazines; Newsweek and Time, and this even made her and the state of Alaska be in the international spotlight. Her major media interviews during her campaigns left a mark on her character and received mixed reactions from her political competitors and media analysts alike. She did an interview with ABC News, FoxNews Channel, and CBS News. From the results of her news interviews, there were reports that indicated that a faction of her compatriots in the Republican Party claiming that she was a liability to the campaign. However, others retorted that the Republican columnists were merely elitists and uncomfortable with an individual’s rise to the rank and file to emerge top of her game. The highlight of her campaigns was the vice presidential debate with Joe Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, in St Louis. Even though pundits affirmed that she was beaten honestly in the debate, political pundits believed that she has exceeded the expectations of American voters (Kim and Betsy 80. However, she was more known for her firebrand and scathing attacks on Barrack Obama, the presidential candidate on a Democratic ticked. Further, her fame skyrocketed when her parodies went viral on YouTube in the closing periods leading up to the election. Moreover, the controversial statement that indicated that her family was the beneficiaries of up to $150, 000 of campaign funds from the Republican National Committee for expenditures on clothes, food, hair, styling and make-up stirred up a national debate. Eventually, she returned the clothes at the end of the campaigns to the Republican National Committee.
The 2008 election took place on November 4, and as had been consistently predicted, the Democratic Party emerged victorious, with Barrack Obama ascending to the presidency later. The Republican conceded, and John thanked Sarah for calling that Palin an aggressive campaigner, a solid fresh voice in the Republican Party, and one who could be instrumental for reform and principles that have always been the party’s greatest strength.
Outside the political life, Sarah Palin craved for the limelight, perhaps a result of her celebrity status she gained from her national campaigns. Since her resignation from the gubernatorial seat, Sarah has been successful in the media, appealing to over five million viewers for the debut of her Sarah Palin’s Alaska Show, a production of Mark Burnett on TLC. Going Rogue, her memoir contains information on her political career and personal life plus her gubernatorial resignation. The title of the book is actually coined from a phrase she acquired during her campaigns as reports claimed that she constantly rebelled on certain fundamental issues on the campaign trail (Zencey 75). She is an extremely sought after political endorsee, especially within her Republican stable, with reports indicating that in the year 2010, she endorsed up to 74 Republican candidates for various seats throughout the United States. Moreover, the rumors linking her to presidential campaigns in 2012 further swelled her fame in the country and abroad. She has been a guest to very many countries spreading the allure of the state of Alaska all over the globe. Sarah Palin together with her husband toured India, Israel, and during all her visits, she was constantly bugged with the question on her decision to stand for the presidency of the United States. She was included in the list of most fascinating people in America in the year 2008 and chosen in the year 2010 to be in the list of 100 world’s most influential people, annual list by the Time Magazine.
 
Works Cited
Conroy, Scott, and Shushannah Walshe. Sarah from Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar. New York: PublicAffairs, 2009. Print.
Katz, Sue. Thanks but No Thanks: The Voter’s Guide to Sarah Palin. Arlington, Mass: Harvard Perspectives Press, 2008. Print.
Kim, Richard C. C, and Betsy Reed. Going Rouge: Sarah Palin : an American Nightmare. Deerfield Beach, Fla: Health Communications, 2009. Print.
Sarah Palin: The Alaskan Barracuda. Place of publication not identified: Filiquarian Pub, 2008. Print.
Zencey, Matthew. Unlikely Liberal: Sarah Palin’s Curious Record As Alaska Governor. Washington, D.C: Potomac Books, 2012. Internet resource.