Palin's Alaskan story

SCRIPT:

On the basketball court in high school...Sarah Palin earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda."

It's a name that caught on again as she showed her moves in the political arena.

The one-time sports anchor beat out a 3-term incumbent to become mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a city of 6000 residents a dozen years ago.

Palin challenged the state's incumbent governor in 2006, becoming Alaska's first female governor and its youngest at 42.

Now less than two years later, the mother of five has been named Republican John McCain's candidate for Vice President:

SOUNDBITE: Sarah Palin, Republican vice presidential candidate, saying (English):

"As Governor I've stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests to the lobbyists the big oil companies and the good old boy network."

Palin's been hugely popular in her state, pledging to reform government and voicing support for more oil and gas drilling in Alaska:

SOUNDBITE: Sarah Palin, Republican vice presidential candidate, saying (English):

"With alaska's love and care for our environment and our lands and our environment. alaskans are saying yes because we believe that it can be done safely can be done prudently and it had better be done ethically also."

But Palin's ethics have also come into question. A state investigation is looking into whether she abused power by dismissing a public safety commissioner who refused to fire her former brother-in-law.

But the aggressive governor has also shown a softer side. She was named Miss Congeniality at the Miss Alaska pageant in 1984 and was Featured in glossy Vogue magazine a few months ago...albeit hunting caribou and eating moose stew.

A staunch opponent of abortion, Palin delivered her fifth child knowing he would suffer from Down's syndrome.

A life member of the NRA and commander of Alaska's National Guard, Palin tried her eye on an M4 assault rifle on a visit to troops in Kuwait last year.

This fall her oldest son is set to leave for Iraq.

But on Wednesday all five children, her husband, and the young man who plans to marry her pregnant 17 year old daughter Bristol surrounded Palin as they met her running mate John McCain at the Twin Cities airport.

...on their way to the convention...and the biggest political play of Sarah Palin's life.

Katharine Jackson, Reuters.