Going Veep

IF NOTHING else, John McCain's selection of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate means that he has someone who could match up with Barack Obama if the presidential tickets ever play two-on-two hoops. When she was a student at Wasilla ( Alaska) High, point guard Palin (class of '82) picked up the nickname Sarah Barracuda for her fierce play on the court. Her career highlight: a Willis Reed--like performance in a state playoff game, when she hit a game-winning free throw despite having a stress fracture in her ankle.

Palin's jockish ways continued after high school. She worked for a time as a sports anchor for a local TV station, and she fishes and hunts. (Her husband, Todd, is a four-time winner of the 1,971-mile Tesoro Iron Dog Championship, the world's longest snowmobile race.) Not that her Democratic counterpart is a slouch in the sports department: According to the University of Delaware website, Joe Biden, 65, "is a vocal fan of the Fightin' Blue Hens football team, for which he played briefly as what he calls a 'half-baked halfback.'?"