RetroNews: 29 August, 2008: McCain taps Alaska Gov. Palin as vice president pick

CNN Politics, 29 August 2008: McCain taps Alaska Gov. Palin as vice president pick
Sen. John McCain announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate Friday, calling her "the running mate who can best help me shake up Washington."

"She's exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of me first and country second," the presumptive Republican nominee said at a Dayton, Ohio, rally of about 15,000 supporters, who welcomed the surprise pick of the relatively unknown politician with cheers and flags.

"She's got the grit, integrity, good sense and fierce devotion to the common good that is exactly what we need in Washington today," McCain said.

Palin, 44, described herself as a fighter against corruption and a bipartisan reformer in her first appearance as a candidate for vice president, an office she said she never expected to seek.

"I was just your average hockey mom in Alaska" before getting involved in politics, she said. "When I found corruption there, I fought it hard and brought the offenders to account."

Palin told the crowd, "To have been chosen brings a great challenge. I know that it will demand the best that I have to give, and I promise nothing less."

Palin is a first-term governor who unseated incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary in 2006 and went on to defeat former Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, in the general election.

Campaigning for governor, she described herself as a "conservative Republican, a firm believer in free-market capitalism" and "a lifelong Alaskan who grew up hunting and fishing."

She boasted of eliminating taxes as mayor in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. She also was a City Council member in the town and was chairwoman of Alaska's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates oil and gas resources.

Palin will be the first woman to be nominated for vice president as a Republican and only the second to run for vice president on a major party ticket, after Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.

Palin also will be the first Alaskan to be on the ticket of either party.

She described herself Friday as "commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard" and noted that her oldest son, Track, is a U.S. soldier scheduled to deploy soon to Iraq.

But there also are aspects of her biography that make her unusual for a Republican candidate. McCain introduced her as a former union member and the wife of a union member, a nod to Ohio's strong organized-labor culture.