Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Republican John McCain picked 44- year-old Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, a surprise choice designed to attract women voters and blunt concerns about his age.

``I have found the right partner to stand up to those who value their privileges over their responsibilities,'' McCain, 72, the presumed Republican nominee, told 15,000 people at a rally in Dayton, Ohio. ``She's exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of me first and country second.''

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. ``To have been chosen brings a great challenge. I know that it will demand the best I have to give, and I promise nothing less.''

In a sign of the secrecy in which the selection was wrapped, Palin's office last night announced she would be spending today at the Alaska State Fair.

Second Woman

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.

One Democrat drew an analogy to another vice presidential pick. 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 by then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.

``John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,'' Adrianne Marsh, a spokeswoman for Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama, said in a statement. Obama last week picked Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running-mate.

In Dayton, Palin was joined by her husband, Todd, a steelworker and commercial fisherman and, Palin said, ``a world- champion snow machine racer.''

Family

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.

Palin named her first child Track because he was born during the track season, she said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal about her exercise habits. ``Running is my sanity,'' she told the paper.

McCain met Palin at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington in February and was ``extraordinarily impressed,'' according to McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker.

The McCain team kept in touch with Palin as part of the vice presidential selection process and the candidate spoke with her by phone last Sunday, Hazelbaker said. On Wednesday, 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 as a ``genuine reformer'' who has cut wasteful spending in her state. ``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 should also ease worries of the Republican Party's social conservative base. 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.

Palin has a strong anti-abortion record. She is a member of Feminists for Life, a group that works to make health-care and child-care resources available to ``pregnant or parenting students,'' according to the group's Web site.

Abortion Foe

``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. She'll help to elevate the issue of energy independence and the need to drill, and she'll be warmly received by the pro-family and pro-life community.''

President George W. Bush called the pick ``exciting'' and said Palin ``is a proven reformer who is a wise steward of taxpayer dollars and champion for accountability in government.''

Palin's selection may also be geared to help McCain attract some of the millions of women who supported New York Senator Hillary Clinton in her failed bid for the Democratic nomination.

``Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America,'' Palin said, referring to the votes Clinton won. ``We can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.''

Clinton put out a statement congratulating McCain and Palin and calling the choice ``historic.''

``While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate,'' Clinton said.

Obama called Palin from his campaign bus today and told her she would be a ``terrific candidate and that he looked forward to seeing her on the campaign trail,'' the Democrat's senior adviser Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

Rising Star

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.

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.

Defeated Murkowski

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.

Since taking office, 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 then 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 voted on July 28 to hire an independent investigator, according to the Daily News.

Palin hasn't been implicated in the four-year-old federal corruption investigation, which has resulted in convictions of or guilty pleas from three state legislators, Murkowski's former chief of staff and two executives of an oil-services company, as well as the indictment of Senator Ted Stevens.

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 29, 2008 19:11 EDT