Palin's Path
A look at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's life and career:
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Born Sarah Heath in Sandpoint, Idaho -- the third of four children born to to Chuck and Sally Heath. The family moves to Alaska when Sarah is an infant.
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Graduates from Wasilla High School in Wasilla, Alaska. She is a star player on her high school's state championship basketball team, earning her the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" for her defensive skills on the court.
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Wins the Miss Wasilla beauty pageant. She places second in the Miss Alaska pageant, and is voted Miss Congeniality.
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Graduates with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the
University of Idaho.
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Serves stint as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV in Anchorage.
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Marries Todd Palin, whom she would have five children with.
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Enters public life, serving two terms on the Wasilla City Council.
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Elected mayor of Wasilla City, Alaska, for two terms
until term limits forced her from office.
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Loses her first statewide campaign for the GOP nomination
for lieutenant governor.
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Frank Murkowski leaves the Senate to become governor and
names Palin chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
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Split with the party leaders by battling Randy Ruedrich,
the head of Alaska's Republican Party.
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Upsets then-Gov. Murkowski in the Republican primary, then
defeats former two-term Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, in the general election.
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Palin is sworn in as the governor of Alaska, becoming the first woman and youngest person to hold the office.
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Pressures lawmakers to get the Alaska Gasline Inducement
Act passed, to build a natural gas pipeline to deliver 35 trillion feet of North Slope natural gas to market.
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Troopergate: The Alaska state legislature votes to spend up to $100,000 on an independent investigator to look into whether Gov. Palin abused her power in firing a public safety commissioner on July 11, after he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.
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Chosen as Sen. John McCain's vice-presidential running mate in the 2008 election. She becomes the second woman to run for vice president on a major-party ticket and the first Republican woman to do so.
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Gov. Palin discloses that her daughter Bristol, 17, is five months pregnant and intends to keep the baby and marry the father of her child, Levi Johnston, also 17.
Hires lawyer for Troopergate investigation.
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Gov. Palin accepts the GOP nomination for vice president during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
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A CBS News/NY Times poll shows that of those previously uncommitted voters who have decided after the conventions to back a candidate, a majority was choosing the McCain-Palin ticket, with Palin well received among those voters. However, while her selection has fired up the GOP's evangelical base, she is not drawing support from disaffected Hillary Clinton voters.
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In her first sit-down TV interview since the nomination, Palin discusses her foreign policy expertise and other matters with ABC News. The fallout from the interview leads to Palin being spoofed on "Saturday Night Live" by Tina Fey ("I can see Russia from my house!"), the video of which becomes a viral hit on the Internet.
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The first portion of Katie Couric's one-on-one interview with Palin is shown. Palin's answers to questions ranging from Supreme Court cases to newspapers she reads cause some conservatives to question her remaining on the ticket.
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Palin shares the stage with Democrat Joe Biden for the vice presidential debate. Palin dodges some questions but speaks directly to camera and holds her own, emphasizing a track record of reform and a desire to reshape Washington-politics-as-usual.
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After declaring that the campaign is "taking the gloves off," Palin accuses Barack Obama of believing America to be "so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," a reference to former 1960s radical William Ayers.
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Troopergate report is released. Investigators find that Palin's abuse of power broke the state's ethics law, because of her pressure to have her ex-brother-in-law fired. The report also said her firing of Commissioner Monegan was within her authority as Governor.
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Despite the Troopergate report finding she violated Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the state's Executive Branch Ethics Act, Palin told the press that the report actually cleared her of any "legal wrongdoing or unethical activity."
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Palin and running mate Sen. John McCain are defeated in their bid for the White House.
Earlier, a report clears Palin of ethics violations in the firing of her public safety commissioner. The report says there is no probable cause to believe Palin or any other state official violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act in connection with the firing. An earlier, separate investigation by the Legislature found that Palin had abused her office.
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Credits:
CBS News, Associated Press, Anchorage Daily News
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