McCain names female Alaska governor as VP pick

Sarah Palin 'honoured' to accept VP nomination

Last Updated: Friday, August 29, 2008 | 1:20 PM ET Comments192Recommend91

CBC News

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, left, hugs Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the Arizona senator announces her as his vice-presidential running mate on Friday in Dayton, Ohio. (Kiichiro Sato/Associated Press)Hoping to steal some thunder from Barack Obama's Democratic nomination, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain introduced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate at a rally in Dayton, Ohio on Friday.

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

"She's exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of 'me first and country second.'"

McCain, who coincidentally turned 72 Friday, kept his pick a closely guarded secret hours before the announcement in Dayton.

"Senator, I am honoured to be chosen as your running mate," Palin told McCain in front of a cheering crowd.

Palin would become only the second female vice-presidential candidate for a major party in U.S. history, the first being Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.

At 44, she is also a full generation younger than McCain, whose campaign has been dogged by concerns about his age.

As top prospects seemed to drop away, speculation moved toward Palin, the first-term governor of Alaska, whose name had come up in the weeks leading up to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, Minn. on Monday.

The Obama camp has been campaigning aggressively in Alaska in an attempt to break the traditional Republican hold on the state in the November election.

Self-styled 'hockey mom'

The buzz over a female candidate entering the vice-presidential fray comes just days after former Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton, who was left off the Democratic ticket in favour of Delaware Senator Joe Biden, released her delegates to her former rival at the party's convention.

Palin is a self-styled "hockey mom" and political reformer who took office in 2006.

The Idaho-born Palin is younger than Obama and, like McCain, she calls herself a maverick.

Yet she has a strong anti-abortion record that is in line with Republican orthodoxy, whose support McCain needs to prevail in the national campaign.

"It's an absolutely brilliant choice," said Mathew Staver, dean of Liberty University school of law.

"This will absolutely energize McCain's campaign and energize conservatives," he predicted.

"I think [McCain] went down a long list and found a problem with everybody — all the bigger names, all the people that people have heard of," Martin Gottlieb, a political columnist for the newspaper Dayton Daily News, told CBC news earlier Friday.

"I think in his heart of hearts he wanted Joe Lieberman, but people told him that would tear the party apart."

Lieberman, a senator from Connecticut who now sits as an independent, was Al Gore's running mate on the 2000 Democratic ticket.

He is a close ally of McCain, but is pro-choice and differs from the Republican rank and file on a number of other issues.

Pawlenty won't be at Dayton rally

Another frequently mentioned contender, Tim Pawlenty, was reportedly told Friday morning he was not McCain's choice, the Associated Press reported.

For his part, the Minnesota governor appeared to take himself out of the running, saying on his weekly call-in radio show that it would be "a fair assumption" that he will not be McCain's running mate.

"I'm not going to be there. I plan to be at the state fair. You can draw your conclusion from that," Pawlenty said in Minneapolis.

Other names mentioned included:

• Tom Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania.
• Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.
• Former congressman Rob Portman of Ohio.