Wednesday night in St. Paul, Minnesota, the nation was introduced to a relatively unknown political newcomer who has been surrounded by media controversy for the last week. After her surprise VP nod from John McCain over the weekend, the media went into a frenzy before she was even allowed to speak. However on Wednesday, America finally got to meet Sarah Palin. Her first major speech was explosive, humerous, clear, and best of all, it took jabs at her critics. But why did McCain choose her? Who is she?

Relatively unknown in mainstream political circuits, Sarah Palin is the current governor of Alaska. She began her political career in the 1990’s on a PTA board. Growing tired of the government corruption she saw in her own town, she moved to challenge an incumbent mayor in her small town in Alaska and won. When the then U.S. Senator from Alaska, Frank Murkowski, resigned from his Senate seat in 2002 to become the Alaskan governor, Palin was on his short list to be appointed to his vacant senate seat. Instead, Murkowski appointed his daughter to the Senate Seat and appointed Palin to Charmain of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) in 2003, where she also served as the Ethics Supervisor.

In 2004, Sarah Palin resigned from her post on the AOGCC on the grounds of “lack of ethics” from fellow Republicans on the Commission. Afterwards she filed a formal complaint against the state’s GOP chairman and the former attorney general on grounds of using public time to do party work and working closely with a company the Commission was supposed to be regulating. They both resigned and were fined a record $12,000.

Surprisingly, in 2006 she ran against fellow Republican incumbent Governor Murkowski in the primaries–and won. She defeated the Democratic opponent (a former governor of Alaska), running on a platform of clean government and focusing on education, public safety and transportation. She took office in December 2006 and has maintained a very high approval rating since.

As governor, she ushered in a new multi-billion dollar natural gas pipeline to import clean, natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope to the lower 48 states, a step in the right direction for energy independence and cleaner methods of energy. To help cope with rising energy costs, she vowed to send each Alaskan $1200 as a share of the large windfall profits the state acquired from taxes on oil companies. Another huge undertaking she can credit herself for was reducing wasteful government spending. She hit on this a bit in her speech at the Republican National Convention, telling the story of selling the Governor’s Private Jet on eBay and cutting excessive luxuries in the Governors Mansion. As part of the spending cuts, she also eliminated funding for dead end projects such as the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” and helped to balance the budget, all while increasing funding for infrastructure expenditures.

While Sarah Palin has been blasting through the Alaskan political scene for over a decade cleaning up government, she has stayed relatively unknown on the national scene. She is known in conservative circles as a reformer and a kind of maverick, which seems to go perfect on the McCain ticket. She has solid credentials and a bit of controversy nonetheless. However the media would have you believe she was a choice made on a whim to take Clinton votes away from Obama. In actuality the appeal of Palin on the GOP ticket is just the opposite.

Palin is a self described “hockey mom”, a working class woman, a pro-life supporter, capital punishment supporter, NRA card holding member, supporter of the teachings of creationism AND evolution, and a feminist. Her husband is also a member of a union, and Palin has said she would like to see an exit strategy for Iraq. She has appeal on both sides of the spectrum, but the question still arises: why did McCain choose her?

McCain is unpopular amongst many a conservative due to his history of bucking the party line and the GOP was not very highly motivated for a large scale Get Out the Vote Effort. I personally attended the North Carolina GOP Convention a few months ago, and the entire theme seemed to be to motivate the delegates to not necessarily vote FOR John McCain, but to vote AGAINST Barack Obama.

The choice of Sarah Palin did two things: it brought conservative values back onto the ticket, and helped to usher in the future of the Republican Party. McCain moved the GOP away from the right of the political spectrum towards the center, and that shift was almost solidified with the potential choice of Joe Lieberman as VP. However, Palin expands the void back to the right and appeals to a broad range of voters from ex-Clinton supporters to Libertarians. She speaks well, has a sense of humor, and can dish out the criticisms with a smile. No doubt, Sarah Palin poses a threat to the left and any member in the elitist Beltway Political Circle. This is sickeningly apparent from the relentless and mostly untrue attacks from her from the day she was announced as the VP candidate that the media has dished out.

The common criticism has been her lack of experience. The argument is a moot point. While Obama is relatively inexperienced, he has served as a “community organizer”, a state senator and a U.S. Senator. However, these positions are simply a part of a larger appartus, merely a vote and a portion in an entire body. Obama has routinely abstained from voting or voted “present” more than he actually makes a decision. As Rudy Guiliani stated in his speech, a Mayor, Governor or President does not get that luxury. They are executives, and the road stops at them. They must make a decision and stand behind it. Palin has been involved in politics just as long as Obama, but has had executive decision making experience.

Palin promises to reform government from within, which most agree is desperately needed. Many are in agreement that the Bush Administration is leaving quite a mess behind, and regardless of who wins they will have quite a job on their hands. McCain and Palin both have a history of bucking their party for what they feel is right, and more and more Americans are realizing that this may be what is necessary rather than pandering to the failed partisan politics we are victim to today.