Sarah Palin biography

With her nomination, Palin became the second woman to run for Vice President on a U.S. major party ticket, and the first Republican female to do so. Addressing the party's convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 3, Palin depicted herself as "just your average hockey mom," joking that the "only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick." In her first nationally televised interview after she was named as McCain's running mate,

Palin told ABC's Charles Gibson that she didn't hesitate when asked to join the ticket, and she felt prepared to run the country if necessary. "I'm ready," Palin. "I answered him 'yes' because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can't blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we're on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can't blink."

Palin's interview was placed under intense scrutiny, and the candidate received mixed reviews by political pundits. Of particular concern was Palin's foreign policy experience, and her ability to take over as president should anything happen to McCain. The Washington Post found her comments "strikingly devoid of the diplomatic language generally used by US officials when discussing relations with Russia." This criticism only deepened when, during an interview in Fairbanks, Alaska, Palin acknowledged that she had never met a leader of a foreign country and that she had visited only Canada and Mexico before a 2007 trip to Kuwait and Germany to visit U.S. troops.

Campaign Hurdles

The Los Angeles Times pointed out that Palin also reversed her stance on climate change, when she said "I believe that man's activities certainly can be contributing to the issue of global warming, climate change ... Regardless of the reason for climate change, whether it's entirely, wholly caused by man's activities or is part of the cyclical nature of our planet—the warming and the cooling trends—regardless of that, John McCain and I agree that we gotta do something about it, and we have to make sure that we're doing all we can to cut down on pollution." But "less than a year ago, she said the opposite," the Times said. She cited her involvement in energy issues in oil-rich Alaska as a national security credential and added that she saw energy as a foundation of national security. On the issue of energy, Palin renewed her support for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, despite McCain's opposition. But she appeared to do a sharp turn towards McCain's view on the role humans play in climate change.

There was additional concern that she didn't know enough about government policies when she failed to understand a question about the Bush Doctrine, a phrase commonly used to describe the foreign policy of the Bush administration. "Granted, this might not be something that your average hockey mom would know," The New York Times later commented, "but it probably is something that a commander-in-chief-in-waiting might have considered."