It was a very impressive speech. Yes, of course she had the services of the top Republican wordsmiths to draft an hone the text. But any politician knows that you can have the best text in the world but you and you alone have to get up there and make it sing in front of your audience. I felt that at the start Mrs Palin sounded a bit nervous -hardly surprising- but as the speech went on she relaxed into it, worked her audience and milked the applause lines to great effect. The party faithful loved it.
Governor Palin is no shrinking violet. She delivered her attacks on Barack Obama with evident relish. "I suppose being a small town mayor is a bit like being a community organiser, except that you have real responsibilities" . Or: "There are some politicians who use 'change' to promote their careers; and there are others, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change". And she was happy to paint herself as feisty and fearless: "You know the difference between a hockey-mom and a pit-bull - lipstick!" I did at times last night find myself reminded of Margaret Thatcher laying into her opponents - and, come to think of it, there was another woman leader who was at first derided by many pundits as inexperienced.
Of course one speech does not create a political success story, especially not a speech given to your party's hard-core supporters primed and eager to cheer you to the echo. The debate with Senator Biden will be important, as will Governor Palin's performance in front of more sceptical crowds and her ability to deal with high-profile media interviews.
But with the first big speech a clear success, I think that the McCain campaign can notch up two clear gains from Sarah Palin's nomination. First, she has energised the party's conservative base, people who have not in the past been enthusiastic about McCain himself. Republican activists now feel motivated to campaign and to vote and the lesson of the last two Presidential elections was that the greater commitment and turnout of GOP supporters in key districts and states is what made victory possible. Second, Mrs Palin has made the Republican ticket interesting, exciting and new - she is in this sense a counter not so much to Biden as to Obama himself.
What the Republican strategists must hope is that Mrs Palin can not just enthuse the faithful, but reach out to swing voters whose support it is essential for McCain to win. One group is voters in western states like Montana, Nevada and Colorado - places traditionally Republican but now flirting with the Democrats. Mrs Palin's conservative values, her emphasis on individual freedom and small government, her scepticism about gun control and her commitment to develop America's energy and mineral reserves should play well in these states.
The second group might be described as "Hillary's hockey-moms", women (and perhaps their husbands too) in small towns and suburbs in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania who voted for both Clintons but who are hesitating about Obama. Can Sarah Palin win them over? Or will her cultural conservatism put them off? Will Mrs Palin's words and life story help convince these voters that the McCain ticket will look after their interests at a time og huge economic uncertainty, or will that be trumped by the Democrats' economic populism and public disaffection with the record of the Bush administration?
