Sarah Palin received death threats after she was nominated as Republican John McCain’s running mate in 2008 presidential elections, according to e-mails made public, reflecting her meteoric rise.

The then Alaska governor – and now possible White House candidate – also emerges as hard-working and very concerned about her image from the 24,000 pages of e-mails released last Friday under a Freedom of Information request.

“Can you believe it!” Palin wrote in late August 2008, responding to a congratulatory message from a staffer after she was announced as McCain’s surprise and controversial pick as vice-presidential nominee.

“He told me yesterday – it moved fast! Pray! I love you,” she added in an e-mail, as media outlets rifled through the mass of exchanges released by the state of Alaska.

But just three weeks before she became McCain’s pick, she showed surprising support for parts of the energy plan promoted by Barack Obama when he was a Democratic presidential candidate, saying he was “right on”.

“He gave a great speech this morn in Michigan – mentioned Alaska,” she wrote to several aides, including energy adviser Joe Balash. “Stole out Energy Rebate $1,000 check idea, stole our TC-Alaska gasline talking points, etc. So.... we need to take advantage of this a(nd) write a statement saying he’s right on. (Glad he’s flipflopping on OCS, too.)”

She then followed that up shortly with “He did say ‘yay’ to our gasline. Pretty cool. Wrong candidate.”

Those comments could have embarrassed Palin if they hadbeen revealed after she became the Republican vice-presidential nominee.