By FOXNews.com
Published: 08-29-08
DAYTON Ohio — John McCain introduced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate at a noon rally here Friday.
“My friends and fellow Americans I am very pleased and very privileged to introduce to you the next vice president of the United States Governor Sarah Palin of the great state of Alaska” McCain told a capacity crowd of 12000 at the Nutter Center.
Describing Palin as someone with “grit and integrity and devotion to the common good that is exactly what we need in Washington today” McCain said Palin “knows where she comes from and she knows who she works for. She stands up for what is right and she doesn’t tell anyone to sit down. She’s fought oil companies and party bosses and do-nothing bureaucrats and anyone who puts their interests before the people they serve.”
“I would be honored to serve next to the next president of the United States” Palin said after joining McCain his wife Cindy and daughter Meghan on stage. “To be chosen is a great challenge. I know that it will demand everything I have to give and I promise nothing less.”
Offering up her biographical details Palin introduced her husband Todd a production operator in the oil fields on Alaska’s North Slope and “world champion snow machine racer” with whom she was celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary on Friday. She then introduced her five children four of whom were with her on Friday.
The choice of a woman running mate comes during the week of the 88th anniversary of women earning the right to vote. Palin noted that she followed in the footsteps of former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro and Sen. Hillary Clinton who in her historic presidential bid this year had made “18 million cracks” in the glass ceiling
“It turns out that women in America aren’t finished yet and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all” she said to rousing applause.
Palin a noted reformer who stood up to the “good ole’ boy network” in her state said she wanted to challenge the status quo and serve the common good.
“A ship in harbor is safe but that is not why a ship is built. … People in America expect us to seek public office and serve for the right reasons” she said noting that McCain has been a maverick in Washington.
“This is a moment when principles … matter a lot more than the party line. And this is a man who has been there always to serve the country and not just the party. And this is a moment that requires resolve and toughness and strength of heart in the American president. And my husband has shown these qualities in the darkest of places and in the service of his country” she said.
Click here to see photos of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Palin is considered a rising star in the Republican Party. She is the state’s first female governor the mother of five — and at 44 is its youngest chief executive.
The choice of Palin was kept under such tight wraps that even Palin’s mother said Friday morning that she had not yet heard from her daughter that she had been selected for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket.
“I’m sure she’s trying. We haven’t been off the phone for a second” Palin’s mother Sally Heath said explaining that she and her husband were notified of the news by friends in Atlanta who were watching FOX News.
Palin emerged early in the day as the hot name in the vice presidential sweepstakes after reports circulated that two short-listers — Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty — were out of the running.
Adding fuel to the Palin candidacy was a report that a charter aircraft from Anchorage owned by a McCain supporter had arrived at a small airport outside Dayton Ohio where McCain has scheduled a noon ET rally to announce his choice.
FOX News reported the jet flew to Flagstaff Ariz. on Thursday before heading landing in Middletown Ohio.
Palin will now travel with McCain on the bus from the hotel to the rally where he will introduce her to the nation.
The McCain camp issued a statement calling Palin a reformer who can work across the party aisle.
“Governor Palin has challenged the influence of the big oil companies while fighting for the development of new energy resources. She leads a state that matters to every one of us” the statement said.
“In Alaska Governor Palin challenged a corrupt system and passed a landmark ethics reform bill. She has actually used her veto and cut budgetary spending. She put a stop to the ‘bridge to nowhere’ that would have cost taxpayers $400 million dollars.”
A McCain campaign aide described her as a perfect complement to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
“A maverick with a record of reform picks a maverick with a record of reform. With this pick John McCain is putting Washington on notice. There’s a shake-up coming” the aide said.
Informed of the selection a Barack Obama spokesman questioned Palin’s executive experience.
“Today John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need it’s just more of the same” said spokesman Bill Burton.
Earlier this month the Anchorage Daily News reported that Palin has been under investigation after she her chief of staff other aides and her husband had contacted the Public Safety Department about firing Palin’s brother-in-law a state trooper who was in a custody battle with Palin’s sister. Palin said she did not know about the phone calls before they were made but acknowledged that “such pressure could have been perceived to exist.”
However Palin is well received among both economic and social conservatives. She is quoted saying in 2002 that she is as “pro-life as any candidate can be.” The Club for Growth a government spending watchdog described Palin as a “genuine reformer.”
“At a time when many Republicans are still clinging to pork-barrel politics Governor Palin has quickly become a leader on this issue” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “She is a principled reformer who understands how badly wasteful spending has marred the Republican brand.”
Born in Idaho Palin moved to Alaska with her parents to Charles and Sally Heath when she was 3 months old.
She grew up in Wasilla just outside of Anchorage and played on the Wasilla state championship girls’ basketball team. She was crowned Miss Wasilla in 1984 and was a runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant.
Palin studied journalism and political science at the University of Idaho and graduated in 1987. She eloped with her high school boyfriend Todd Palin in 1988 to save money on an expensive wedding. She helped out in her husband’s family commercial fishing business and appeared occasionally as a television sportscaster.
Palin won a seat on the Wasilla City Council in 1992 as a new face and a new voice and by opposing tax increases. Four years later she was elected mayor at 32 by knocking off a three-term incumbent. At the end of her second term party leaders encouraged her to enter the 2002 race for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Against veteran legislators with far more experience Palin finished second by fewer than 2000 votes making a name for herself in statewide politics. She was elected Alaska’s youngest and first woman governor in 2006.
Sarah and Todd Palin have five children: boys Track 19 and Trig 4 months and daughters Bristol 17 Willow 13 and Piper 7. Track Palin joined the Army last Sept. 11 and will deploy to Iraq next month.
Palin had kept her pregnancy with Trig a secret as she worked in the governor’s mansion confirming only weeks before the birth that she was going to have a son who she knew would have Down syndrome. She returned to work in April three days after giving birth.
Palin will be the second female vice presidential candidate from a major political party. The first was New York Rep. Geraldine Ferrarro who was Walter Mondale’s Democratic running mate in 1984. Ferrarro told FOX News that Palin could pick up a lot of Hillary Clinton’s supporters who have not locked in on Obama.
FOX News confirmed Thursday that McCain had made his selection and would appear with his pick at the Dayton rally.
On Friday sources told FOX News that Romney was not going to be McCain’s choice even though the former Massachusetts governor is scheduled to appear at the Dayton rally.
And Pawlenty told a Minneapolis radio station that he was not going to be in Dayton for the McCain announcement.
“I’m going to be at the Minnesota state fair” Pawlenty said on WCCO.
“I will not be in Dayton Ohio so I think that’s a fair assumption” the Minnesota governor said when asked if this was an indication that he would not be McCain’s running mate.
“It was an honor to be considered” he added.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee who like Romney was a rival to McCain in the primaries sent an e-mail to supporters on Thursday evening saying he would not be at the rally. Sources later told FOX News that Huckabee was not in the running.
FOX News’ Carl Cameron and the Almanac of American Politics contributed to this report.
