As people contemplated Friday the impact of Sen. Barack Obama becoming the first black person nominated by a major party to run for president, Sen. John McCain made a move that could put the first woman in the vice president's office.

McCain selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to join him on the Republican ticket.

Many will likely see the selection of a woman as a reaction to Sen. Hillary Clinton's down-to-the-wire campaign for the Democractic nomination.

But Palin is the second woman nominated for the No. 2 spot in the executive branch. The first was Geraldine Ferraro, who ran with Walter Mondale as a Democrat in 1984.

She had been serving as a congresswoman from New York's 9th District when former Vice President Mondale tabbed her for his run against incumbent Ronald Reagan, which ended in a landslide defeat.

Ferraro has already been the star of a few news cycles during the 2008 campaign. She was serving as an fundraiser for Clinton but resigned in March after a controversy erupted over some remarks about Sen. Barack Obama.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she told a California newspaper. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

She said that the comments were not meant to denigrate Obama, but meant that she felt he should celebrate his historic candidacy.

Ferraro faced questions through her campaigns about her family's financial records and the ownership of a building in New York City that some say housed sweat-shop clothing factories and pornography studios. There was also issues regarding whether she or her husband would release tax information.

Those questions were factors in her bids for the U.S. Senate in 1992 and 1998; both times, she failed to make it out of the Democratic primaries.

She also served as a political commentator for CNN and was named by President Bill Clinton as an ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.