Sarah Palin's candidacy for Vice President of the United States was publicly announced by then-presumptive Republican Party presidential candidate John McCain on August 29, 2008.

As part of the McCain presidential campaign, Palin, then the incumbent Governor of Alaska, was officially nominated by acclamation at the 2008 Republican National Convention on September 3.

Former candidates Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee were mentioned as possibilities, as were many other leaders in the Republican Party and the business world.

During the running mate deliberations, McCain had favored Joe Lieberman,[7] who shared his romantic sense of righteousness and honor.

[8] McCain wanted someone who would shake up the race and reinforce his image as a maverick, so he decided against more conventional choices on his short list including Romney and Governor Tim Pawlenty.

[7] McCain had only talked to Palin a few times, and the campaign's vetting operation had mostly relied on Internet searches to check her background.

[9] Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace assumed, incorrectly, that Palin would have a basic working knowledge about the public policy debates of the previous five to ten years.

[10] Palin's career in Alaska had shown maverick tendencies similar to McCain's,[9] and McCain hoped that Palin's youth, reformist record, appeal to social conservatives, and appeal to disaffected female Hillary Clinton voters would outweigh her lack of national and international visibility and experience.

[7] According to the book Game Change, on the weekend before John McCain made his vice-presidential pick, McCain's advisor Arthur Culvahouse asked attorney Ted Frank to prepare a written vetting report on Sarah Palin:[11] Thrown together from scratch in less than forty hours, the document highlighted her vulnerabilities: "Democrats upset at McCain's anti-Obama 'celebrity' advertisements will mock Palin as an inexperienced beauty queen whose main national exposure was a photo-spread in Vogue in February 2008.

[11]On August 29, the day after the Democratic Convention, John McCain introduced Sarah Palin in a speech at Wright State University in Fairborn, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton.

"[9] After announcing Palin as the presumptive vice-presidential nominee, the McCain campaign received US$7 million in contributions in a single day.

[13] According to a survey by The Washington Post/ABC News published on September 9, 2008, John McCain had gained huge support among white women voters since the announcement;[14] he had not only surpassed the Democratic Party candidate Senator Barack Obama in white women voters, but also amassed a lead of five percentage points in the Gallup polls.

John Zogby found that the effects of Palin's selection were helping the McCain ticket since "She has high favorability numbers, and has unified the Republican Party."

Charles Krauthammer of The Washington Post wrote, "The Palin selection completely undercuts the argument about Obama's inexperience and readiness to lead.

[33] The appearance on the cover of Time was particularly notable as Jay Carney, the newsmagazine's Washington bureau chief, has been vocally critical on what he has said is a lack of media access to Palin,[34] concerns which were dismissed by the McCain campaign.

[36] According to The Washington Times, Palin's faith has made her a "favorite with the staunchly pro-Israel neoconservative elements in the Republican Party".

[40][41][42] Four days before the convention, Scully was surprised when he was informed that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was to be McCain's running mate.

[47][48][49][50] Howard Kurtz called this a "whopper", writing: "She endorsed the remote project while running for governor in 2006, claimed to be an opponent only after Congress killed its funding the next year and has used the $223 million provided for it for other state ventures.

It also drew attention to Palin's apparent lack of knowledge about foreign policy: Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton: I disagree with the Bush doctrine.

personal email account of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was subjected to unauthorized access.

The hacker had obtained access to Palin's account by looking up biographical details such as her high school and birthdate and using Yahoo!

[65] Following this interview, some Republicans, including Mitt Romney and Bill Kristol, questioned the McCain campaign's strategy of sheltering Palin from unscripted encounters with the press.

[63][68][69] Polling from CNN, Fox and CBS found that while Palin exceeded most voters' expectations, they felt that Biden had won the debate.

[70][71] Upon returning to the campaign trail after her debate preparation, Palin stepped up her attacks on the Democratic candidate for president, Senator Barack Obama.

In a campaign appearance on October 4, Palin accused Obama of regarding America as "so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country".

"[78] On October 10, 2008, the twelve-member Alaska Legislative Council voted unanimously to release, without endorsing, an investigative report, which found Palin had violated the ethics law covering state executive employees.

[85] In March 2009, a spokesperson for Palin stated that the clothes had been donated to charities [86] The spending was later reviewed and approved by the U.S. Federal Elections Commission by a 5–0 vote.

Echoing the earlier reports, Fey (as Palin) turned to the camera, away from McCain, and says "Okay, listen up, everybody, I'm going rogue right now, so keep your voices down!

[95] In his concession speech McCain thanked Palin, calling her "one of the best campaigners I've ever seen, and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength".

Two members of McCain's staff, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter, told Palin that there was no tradition of Election Night speeches by running mates, and that she would not be speaking.