Twenty-four years after Walter Mondale selected Geraldine Ferraro as his vice-presidential running mate, and less than 24 hours after the historic nomination of the first African American candidate to lead a major party ticket for president, more history is being made today as John McCain — in a surprise move — selects Sarah Palin as his running mate on the Republican ticket.

This dramatic announcement makes Sarah Palin the first woman in history to run as vice president on the Republican side and only the second woman to take the veep spot on a major party ticket.

Palin, 44, is a mother of both a son in the military and a young child with Down’s Syndrome as well as three other children. She is pro-life and a member of the group Feminists for Life. She is a sportswoman who owns a gun. She staged an upset victory in the Alaskan Republican primary by running a clean government campaign against the incumbent Republican governor, Frank Murkowski. She is against gay marriage, yet vetoed a bill that would have barred Alaska from granting benefits to the partners of gay state employees.

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