We all know Governor Palin was a beauty queen, and a point guard in high school… we’ve seen the photos.

Palin sure did bounce around a lot in the olden days. She reportedly attended 5 different colleges in 6 years before finally graduating from the University of Idaho in 1987  . She started out in 1982 at Hawaii Pacific University for her freshman fall semester before heading over to North Idaho College (she’s this year’s Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award winner). In 1984, Palin headed to U of Idaho where she majored in broadcast news (hence her gig as a sports anchor out of college). She missed those good old Alaskan skies so much that she transfered to Matanuska-Susitna College in Palmer, Alaska in 1985, before returning to Idaho for 1987, when she graduated.

Palin has been at the center of Troopergate, an ongoing family feud that has leaked its way into Alaska’s political scene, involving police, the attorney general, and the state legislature. The issue is whether the public safety commissioner, Walter Monegan, was pressured into removing her ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten from the state police force. A bipartisan panel appointed by the Legislature, is investigating whether Palin brought a family feud into office.

In a related story, it seems that the Alaska police have filed a complaint in all this for allegations of illegal accessing of Wooten’s personnel records.

Because of all this, she’s declared all emails among the Palin adminstration as being off-the-record, via executive privilege…  looks like she’s been studying from those who know best!

In 2003, Palin headed up a 527 group for the embattled Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, who was recently indicted in July for 7 counts of corruption. BTW, a 527 group is a tax-exempt organization that can raise unlimited funds for a political candidate, but they can’t mention specific things like, “Vote for ____”. Anyway, Stevens is currently the first U.S. Senator to face criminal charges in 15 years for concealing financial disclosure statements for gifts from oil companies.

While she’s being touted as an extraordinary reformer, Palin has requested more earmarks for her state per resident than any other state…

Though Palin is the governor of a beautifully lush state that might as well be a wildlife refuge, she’s on record as saying that global warming might not be the effect of man-made ignorance. She’s also a fan of drilling in ANWR, which I’m pretty appalled at. She’s basically taking on the Endangered Species Act by questioning scientists’ claims that the beluga needs protection under the act, she’s OK with shooting wolves to boost caribou moose herds for hunters, and she opposed a (failed) state ballot initiative to increase protection for salmon streams from mining.

The former beauty queen and high school athlete does keep in shape, though (she is admittedly attractive, so good for her). Palin mixes running with aerobics, and eats that good old Alaskan diet.

Right before the announcement that Palin would be John McCain’s running mate, her wikipedia page was edited so many times by some anonymous user, that the page is now locked. Yay for democracy…

But Palin has become quite an influential force in the presidential scene already! Not only has she caused a supporter spike for Obama, she’s helped the Democratic candidate raise $8 million, following her schoolyard callout speech on Wednesday.

Photo by Ryan McFarland