Will she? Won’t she? As Americans wait for the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton to announce her second bid for the presidency in 2016, it’s time to remember Sarah Palin. The gaffe-prone, gun-loving, self-described “hockey-mom” burst on to the US political landscape in August 2008, after being chosen by John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, to be his running mate.
Funnily enough, prior to this announcement, she did not think the job of vice-president was very meaningful. “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day,” she told “CNBC”. “I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration.”
Until then, she had only served two years as governor of Alaska. Her previous job was mayor of a small town. The first woman to sit on the Republican presidential ticket, Palin appealed widely to women and the Republican party’s conservative base. Her energetic, down-to-earth style helped rally support behind McCain.
Critics and primetime comedians pounced on her gaffe-filled interviews — in one she cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as evidence of her foreign policy credentials — to insist that she was not up to the job. However, her rallies attracted huge crowds and energised supporters.
A fierce opponent of abortion and a life member of the National Rifle Association, Palin reinvigorated the party with a strong performance at the Republican National Convention. As the juggernaut rolled on, the McCain campaign was soon accused of failing to vet her adequately. The news of her unmarried 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy made headlines on the opening days of the convention. Reports emerged that more than $300,000 (Dh1.1 million) had been spent on clothes, accessories and stylists for Palin and her family.
During March 2011, Palin and her husband toured India at the invitation of Indian news magazine “India Today”. During the tour she was asked about her future candidacy; she said, “I don’t think there needs to be a rush to get out there as a declared candidate. It’s a life-changing decision”. In response to another question, she said “It’s time that a woman is president of the United States of America.”
But a few months later, on October 5, Palin said she had decided not to seek the Republican nomination for president.
Born on February 11, 1964, in Sandpoint, Idaho, Palin moved to Alaska with her family at the age of three months when her father took a teaching position in Skagway, Alaska, before eventually settling in Wasilla. Married for more than 20 years to her childhood sweetheart Todd Palin, she gave birth to their fifth child in 2008 — a son who has Down’s syndrome.
After the unsuccessful campaign, she returned to Alaska, but in July 2009 surprised many by announcing that she was stepping down as governor two years early. She has not exactly been twiddling her thumbs since then. Her political action committee, SarahPAC, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. Palin now has a lucrative career as a public speaker and was paid a mouth-watering $1.25 million retainer by the publisher HarperCollins.
She became a Fox News contributor — a contract reportedly worth $1 million annually — and hosted an eight-part television series called Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Her autobiography, “Going Rogue”, sold nearly 3 million copies. Her second book, “America by Heart”, was published in November 2010 and became the fifth best-selling non-fiction book of that year.
On April 3, Palin premiered her latest TV show, “Amazing America with Sarah Palin,” on the Sportsman Channel.
Palin, 50, remains popular with Tea Party activists and continues to draw large crowds, but her popularity with rank-and-file Republicans has waned. But love her or loathe her, those commentators she once dubbed “the lamestream media” seem to find it hard to ignore her.
-With inputs from BBC
What she said:
We need a foreign policy that distinguishes America’s friends from her enemies, and recognises the true threats that we face.
I love those hockey mums. You know what they say the difference between a hockey mum and a pit bull is? Lipstick.
Despite what the pundits want us to think, contested primaries aren’t civil war, they are democracy at work, and that’s beautiful.
Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge, and children with special needs inspire a very, very special love.
