American politics became interesting once again this morning. Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska and a runner-up in the 1984 Miss Alaska beauty contest, is to be John McCain’s running mate apparently. It’s a smart move by McCain in an attempt to pick up the nation’s female voters who loved Hillary Clinton but don’t love Barack Obama. Palin is a member of the National Rifle Assocation, likes ice fishing, owns a float plane, is Pro Life, her 18-year-old son is in the army and set to depart for Iraq and her nickname on her high school basketball team was ‘Sarah Barracuda.’

Naturally, there is a book – Sarah: How a Small Town Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment on Its Ear by Kaylene Johnson.

The blurb goes….

In 2006, a Angel-faced but tough 42-year-old former small-town mayor named Sarah Palin became a long-shot candidate for Alaska governor demanding a higher ethnical standard in state government. The timing of her reform message and a widening scandal produced a tornado that reshaped the political landscape. Surprising everyone, Palin thumped by wide margins both a sitting governor in the Republican primary election and a former governor in the general election to become Alaska’s first female chief executive and its youngest ever.