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In choosing Ms. Palin — a 44-year-old conservative Christian and self-described “hockey mom” who has been governor for less than two years — the McCain campaign reached far outside the Washington Beltway in an election in which the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, is running on a platform of change.
Ms. Palin, a former mayor of the small town of Wasilla and beauty pageant queen, first rose to prominence as a whistle-blower uncovering ethical misconduct in state government.
The selection amounted to a gamble that an infusion of new leadership — and the novelty of the Republican Party’s first female candidate for vice president — would more than compensate for the risk that Ms. Palin could undercut one of the McCain campaign’s central arguments, its claim that Mr. Obama is too inexperienced to be president.
Moreover, the choice of Ms. Palin is in stark contrast to the recent selection of the Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, a veteran lawmaker who is chairman of Foreign Relations Committee.
But Ms. Palin ran as a change agent when she was elected as governor of Alaska in 2006, and in a move that might have appealed to Mr. McCain, she took intense criticism from members of her own party for turning the spotlight on the failures of Alaska Republicans, some of whom had been beset by corruption scandals.
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Can't find link - someone just sent this.
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