New at Reason: The Sarah Palin Candidate Profile (Blech!)

Not sure who to commit to in the Republican primary race? Let Reason help you out.

Picking a presidential candidate is like sorting through online dating profiles—nobody's quite right, but once a meet-cute is out of the question, the best you can hope for is to pick a mate out of a self-selected digital lineup. Today we’re focusing on former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She’s not officially a candidate—but hey, you never know! We’ve got her horoscope, her nick-name, and her positions on the major issues facing the country.

Reason has profiled the major Republican presidential hopefuls and devised a scientific* survey to help readers find true love among the 10 top contenders (Herman Cain, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Gary Johnson, Sarah Palin, Jon Huntsman, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul).

Click here to take an eight-question quiz and find the candidate of your dreams.

* We're using "scientific" in the Republican sense of the word. So we really mean "made up."

DOB: February 11, 1964 (shares a birthday with Thomas Edison, Leslie Nielson, Jennifer Aniston)

Experience: Palin won the Miss Wasilla beauty pageant in 1984, finishing third in the Miss Alaska contest. After graduating from the University of Idaho in 1987 with a degree in communications, she worked as a sportscaster in Anchorage. She won a seat on the Wasilla City Council in 1992 and was elected mayor in 1996, serving two three-year terms. She unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 2002 and was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in 2003, serving for a year. Elected governor in 2006, she was chosen as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate in 2008. She abruptly resigned as governor in July 2009 to become a Fox News commentator, a TV host (of Sarah Palin's Alaska on TLC), and an author (of Going Rogue: An American Life, a memoir that has sold more than 2 million copies, and America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag).

Spending/size of government/entitlement reform: Palin lobbied for federal funding and championed a $15 million sports complex in Wasilla, where the city's long-term debt increased 25-fold during her tenure. She signed the biggest budget in Alaska history yet vetoed more than $500 million in capital projects in 2007 and 2008. She sought federal earmarks as governor, although less than her predecessor. She defended the Bridge to Nowhere before turning against it as a vice presidential candidate. She criticized the Obama administration's stimulus package but took most of Alaska's share. In 2009 Palin warned that ObamaCare would usher in "death panels" empowered to decide who deserves medical treatment. In her 2010 speech to the National Tea Party Convention, she slammed the "mind-boggling $3.8 trillion federal budget" and "big new programs with giant price tags" as "generational theft."

Economic policy: Running for governor, Palin described herself as "a firm believer in free market capitalism." She supported the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2008 and 2009, then condemned it as "crony capitalism at its worst" in 2010. In 2008 she perceived "socialist principles" in Barack Obama's desire to "spread the wealth around." In the 2008 vice presidential debate, Palin blamed "predator lenders" for the housing crisis, but in her 2009 memoir she argued that "the mortgage crisis that triggered the collapse of our financial markets was rooted in a well-meaning but wrongheaded desire to increase home ownership among people who could not yet afford to own a home."

Foreign policy: Running for vice president, Palin, who did not have a passport until 2006, sought to shore up her foreign policy credentials by citing Alaska's proximity to Russia. While Osama bin Laden was hiding out in Abbottabad, she told CBS News anchor Katie Couric she did not think the Pakistani government was "protecting Al Qaeda." Palin supported the Iraq war and, once Charlie Gibson explained it to her, the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive self-defense. Regarding the invasions of Iraq and Aghanistan, she said, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God."

Drug war: "I can't claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled," Palin said while running for governor in 2006. Two years later, her administration asked the Alaska Supreme Court to reverse its 1975 ruling that private pot consumption is protected by the state constitution. Palin opposes marijuana legalization because it would "encourage especially our young people to think that it was OK to just go ahead and use it" but says methamphetamine is a bigger threat. "If somebody's gonna smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody else any harm," she said on the Fox Business Network in 2010, "then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at."

Personal freedom: Palin opposes abortion except when it's necessary to preserve the mother's life. She favors overturning Roe v. Wade so that states can set their own abortion policies and believes "the legislature should do all it can to protect human life." Palin supports a constitutional ban on gay marriage. A lifetime NRA member, she defends the right to keep and bear arms. Palin opposes Miranda warnings for suspected terrorists, saying "a terrorist who hates our Constitution and tries to destroy our Constitution" does not deserve its protections. By contrast, she opposed construction of "the Ground Zero mosque" while conceding (unlike Newt Gingrich) that it would be protected by the First Amendment, which she believes also guarantees her right to criticize politicians without being criticized.

Immigration: In a 2008 Univision interview, Palin said mass deportation of illegal immigrants would be inhumane and economically impractical. She opposes "total amnesty" because "people have got to follow the rules" but supports "a path to citizenship" because "I understand why people would want to be in America."

Education: As governor Palin supported charter schools and homeschooling but not vouchers. In 2008 Palin said teachers should be paid more and "our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving." She also called for higher standards and a more flexible No Child Left Behind Act.

Energy: Palin supports oil drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, saying "we must be an energy-independent nation." She opposes a cap-and-trade program to reduce emission of greenhouse gases, saying it amounts to a job-killing tax increase that poses "an enormous threat to our economy."

Religious? You betcha. Although Palin had a Catholic baptism as an infant, a few years later her family switched to the Wasilla Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church that she attended until 2002, when she joined the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church. She describes herself as a "Bible-believing Christian," has called the Iraq war a "task that is from God," and averred that her work as Alaska's governor "doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God."

Horoscope for 2011: "You've made elaborate plans for 2011," Horoscope.com tells Aquarians, "and are determined to complete them all. There could, however, be last-minute changes that need to be made. Don't be too inflexible. Go with the flow."

Spoken by the true sophomores they are.

(Are they the ones we’re supposed to donate Pampers to?)

Why are the pot smoking Libertarians at Reason bothering with who runs in the GOP Primary? If I were to place a bet, I would imaging they are all Paultards.

This is one dead horse. Sarah bowed out and her supporters have mostly turned to Cain—if Cain falls it will be either Bachman or Santorum then Newt and Perry-in that order—only if Romney wins the nomination would she consider it her patriotic duty to intervene—and not by going third party.
If Romney is the last one standing then Sarah would have enough support to cause a brokered convention—then she will replace Romney and beat Obama.

Far fetched I know,but that is the only scenario I see of Sarah changing her mind about running cause Mitt CANNOT BEAT Obama and Obama MUST BE BEAT!!!

“Mitt CANNOT BEAT Obama”

People say this. Why? Is it only because of Romney’s healthcare program in Mass.? I think Romney can handle that issue. He says over and over that he’s going to repeaal Obamacare.

“Mitt CANNOT BEAT Obama”

People say this. Why? Is it only because of Romney’s healthcare program in Mass.? I think Romney can handle that issue. He says over and over that he’s going to repeaal Obamacare.

I don't care what he says. He's a mushy moderate without ANY core principles. I have ZERO confidence that Romney would uphold his sworn oath to protect and defend the Constitution.

Romney also has a horrible record in his one term as a governor. Near the bottom in job growth and other economic factors. MA is now drowning under the out of control aspects of Romneycare.

He though it would help unemployment, for example, to give unemployed folks free auto insurance for a year. Huh?

He is a Big Government loser all around.

The only reason he’s GOP is that Daddy George was a GOP guy so he’s got cronies in the GOP. And he’s been groomed since 1968 to redeem the Romney name when Daddy George lost the GOP presidential nomination.

Obamneycare, especially since Mitt’s advisors helped BO draft his bill.

Mitt implemented the strictest cap and trade law in America.

He’s untrustworthy on social issues.

Why do you think the Democrats are helping Occupy Wall Street? Mitt IS Wall Street.

Blurring the differences rarely works. Dole and McCain whow us that.

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