Sarah Palin broke a five-day silence and talked her way into Republican hearts and minds.
The Alaska governor plucked from relative obscurity by John McCain to be his vice presidential running mate for the Nov. 4 election pressed all the right buttons in a much anticipated speech at the party's national convention last night.
"She looked into the liberal heart and made it bleed," said Tobias Buck, a delegate from Indiana.
The partisan crowd was electrified by her repeated pointed attacks on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, which capped a night of invective aimed at him by party heavyweights such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Palin, 44, had been in seclusion since her nomination last week as disclosures about her family swirled around the McCain campaign.
In her speech, she reminded the crowd of Obama's comments at a San Francisco fundraiser in April about bitter small-town residents.
"We don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening," Palin said.
Republicans were thrilled.
"I thought her speech was excellent. She looks like a beauty queen but she's no cupcake," said Anne Conrad, a delegate from Tennessee.
Mindful that she was being watched by a national television audience as well as the party faithful, Palin did not directly address the hottest issues, such as the solid opposition to abortion rights that has energized the party's conservative Christian base.
INTRO ON NATIONAL STAGE
"She ... left some of the religious elements out because that is a fear that some of the public has about her and this was her intro on a national stage," said David Domke, a professor of communication at the University of Washington in Seattle and expert on religion and politics in America.
Palin's staunch anti-abortion and pro-gun history has fired up conservatives concerned that McCain is not strong enough on their bedrock issues.
Even without appeals to overt religiosity, Palin wooed the "family values" crowd by speaking movingly of her five children who were in attendance, including her eldest son, who will ship out for military duty in Iraq on Sept. 11.
She pointedly talked about her infant son, to whom she gave birth despite knowing he would be afflicted with Down syndrome -- a decision widely praised by religiously motivated abortion opponents.
"To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message for you ... if we're elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House," she said to warm applause.
Her pregnant 17-year-old daughter and her boyfriend were also there, thrust into the limelight after the family acknowledged the pregnancy on Monday to scotch rumors that Palin's infant was her daughter's.
"She's a scrapper from small town America and she'll be hard to beat. She's had some hard time with family circumstances but that shows her character," said Tom Minnery, senior vice president at Focus on the Family, an influential conservative advocacy group with strong evangelical ties.