It could have been an expatriate coffee morning. A 44-year-old woman, new to the group, makes an entrance with her family, and introduces them one by one. Todd, the husband, is an oil production operator, the eldest child is away with the army and the other four are there with her. She describes herself as "just your average hockey mom from Alaska", eats Moose burgers, is pro-hunting and anti-abortion.
Of course, it wasn't a coffee morning. It was the day Republican candidate for US President, John McCain, introduced Sarah Palin to the party, and inevitably the world, as his running mate for the November 4 election. In a little over two months voters have to get to know - as well as like - someone they have never heard of and, Mr McCain hopes, vote his old and young ticket.
Mr McCain justified the surprise choice by saying the governor of Alaska was exactly what the country needed. "She will help me fight the same old Washington politics of me first and country second," he said, while she went into slightly nervy overdrive to spell out just how she had weeded out corruption and cut taxes.
Considering that many US citizens are a little downcast at present - given the state of the economy and the massive casualties they have suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan - this is precisely what many wanted to hear: A patriotic underdog who is fast enough to catch up with their runaway American dream, and hopefully bring it back home.
However, despite the fresh face, despite the fact that she can be used by the Republican Party to take vital votes from Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton's bid, and despite the fact that the relatively young, former runner-up beauty queen provides a good foil for 72-year-old Mr McCain - he is the eldest man ever to contest the office for the first time - there are potential pitfalls.
For starters, history is not on her side. The only other time a woman joined the ticket, back in 1984, the bid ended in failure - though undoubtedly times have changed and the contest will be a lot closer this time round.
US citizens will also be aware - and if not the Democrats will drive home the point - that if Mr McCain and Ms Palin make it, she will, as the saying goes, be just a heartbeat away from the presidency. And while they might want her around to clean up Washington, they would not want such an inexperienced hand doing it from the White House.
Barak Obama's motives behind balancing his ticket are almost diametrically opposed to Mr McCain's. In 65-year-old Joe Biden he has a much older running mate and one who has chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee three times - therefore going some way to making up for the Democratic presidential candidate's inexperience in a vital area, as well as dampening Mr McCain's status as a war hero.
Unlike Mr Obama, who is perceived by a section of the electorate as having a somewhat privileged background, Mr Biden stressed that he is "here for the cops and firefighters, the teachers and assembly-line workers - the folks whose lives are the very measure of whether the American dream endures". Also unlike Mr Obama, Mr Biden has a reputation as a bruiser in the arena of political debate.
This is the most interesting US election since Bill Clinton managed against the odds to overhaul George H. Bush in 1992. The winner will be whoever the electorate believes is a willing and able people's patriot. What Mr McCain and Mr Obama must ensure, however, is that their running mates make up for, rather than expose, their own inadequacies.