Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Republican John McCain's surprise choice of 44-year-old Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is designed to attract women voters and ease concerns about his age.

``She's exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of me first and country second,'' McCain, 72, the presumed Republican nominee, told about 15,000 people at a rally in Dayton, Ohio.

Palin, a mother of five, is less than halfway through her first term as governor, a post she won in 2006 by challenging the state's Republican leadership and vowing to clean up a government mired in a corruption scandal.

``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 said after McCain introduced her yesterday.

Palin is the second woman tapped as a major-party nominee for vice president. The first, then-Representative Geraldine Ferraro of New York, was nominated by the Democrats in 1984.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama called Palin yesterday and told her she would be a ``terrific candidate and that he looked forward to seeing her on the campaign trail,'' Obama's senior adviser Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

Quayle Comparison

Others were more critical. Palin is a ``more astounding and puzzling choice than the selection of Dan Quayle in 1988,'' Nick Allard, a Democratic strategist, said in a statement. Former Indiana Senator Quayle, then 41, came under attack for his lack of experience after being selected as the running mate by then- Vice President George H.W. Bush.

Obama last week picked Delaware Senator Joe Biden, 65, as his running mate.

In Dayton after a selection wrapped in secrecy, Palin was joined by her husband, Todd, a steelworker and commercial fisherman. The Palins have five children, sons Track, 19, and Trig, 4 months, and daughters Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7. Track Palin joined the Army in September 2007 and will deploy to Iraq later this year.

McCain met Palin at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington in February and the campaign kept in touch with her, according to McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker.

McCain spoke with Palin by phone on Aug. 24, Hazelbaker said, and on Aug. 27, Palin met in Flagstaff, Arizona, with McCain aides Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter at the home of Bob Delgado, chief executive of the Hensley Corp., the beer distributor owned by Cindy McCain's family.

The next day Palin traveled to McCain's home in Sedona, where he asked her to join the ticket, Hazelbaker said.

`Genuine Reformer'

The Club for Growth, which advocates lower taxes and government spending, praised Palin. ``At a time when many Republicans are still clinging to pork-barrel politics, Governor Palin has quickly become a leader on this issue,'' the group's president, Pat Toomey, said in a statement.

Palin's anti-abortion stance should also ease worries of the Republican Party's social conservatives. Abortion foes have been skittish about McCain, who supports stem-cell research and has said he wants to broaden the party's plank on abortion to include exceptions in cases of rape and when a woman's life is at risk.

``It's a grand-slam home run,'' said Gary Bauer, a McCain supporter who is president of American Values, an Arlington, Virginia-based advocacy group. ``She's a solid conservative.''

Palin was elected mayor of her hometown, Wasilla, Alaska, in 1996 after serving two terms on the city council. Before entering politics she worked as a sports reporter at an Anchorage television station and competed in the Miss Alaska contest.

Rising Star

Considered a rising political star by state Republican leaders, she was appointed in 2003 to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission; it's a significant body in the state, the second-biggest oil-producer after Texas.

While on the commission, Palin led an ethics investigation of another member, state Republican Chairman Randy Ruedrich, who was accused of conflicts of interest involving oil companies.

In 2006, Palin challenged Governor Frank Murkowski, who faced criticism that a deal he had negotiated with energy companies to build a natural-gas pipeline was too favorable to the companies.

She defeated Murkowski in the Republican primary and won election in November.

Earlier this year, Palin threatened to evict Exxon Mobil Corp. and its partners BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips from a state-owned gas field, winning a promise from them to boost Alaska's natural-gas output by 17 percent.

Ethics Inquiry

At the same time, Palin herself has become the subject of a legislative probe involving her July 11 dismissal of the state's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan.

Palin said she wanted to take the department in a new direction. Monegan alleged he had been pressured to fire state trooper Mike Wooten, who was married to Palin's sister and was involved in a contentious divorce, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Palin has denied any wrongdoing. The state Legislature hired a former district attorney to investigate the case and asked him to report by Oct. 31, just before the Nov. 4 general election, state Senator Hollis French said in an interview.

To contact the reporters this story: Ken Fireman in Washington at kfireman1@bloomberg.net; Lorraine Woellert in Dayton, Ohio at lwoellert@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 30, 2008 00:01 EDT