‘Just your average hockey mom’ takes on Obama, critics

The roll-call vote made McCain, 72, the first Republican presidential candidate to share the ticket with a woman and only the second presidential candidate from a major party to do so, after Walter F Mondale selected Geraldine A Ferraro as his running mate for the Democratic ticket in 1984.

But the nomination was a sideshow to the evening’s main event, the speech by the little-known Palin, who was seeking to wrest back the narrative of her life and redefine herself to the American public after a rocky start that has put McCain’s closest aides on edge. Palin’s appearance electrified a convention that has been consumed by questions of whether she was up to the job, as she launched slashing attacks on Obama’s claims of experience.

“Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown,” Palin told the delegates in a speech that sought to eviscerate Obama, as delegates waved signs that said “I love hockey moms”. “And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organiser,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”

As the crowd cheered its approval, Palin went on: “I might add that in small towns 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 was referring to Obama’s experience as a community organiser in Chicago before he served in the Illinois legislature and was elected to the United States Senate in 2004 as well as comments he made at a fundraiser in California about bitter rural voters who “cling” to guns and religion.

The address by Palin, 44, took place before a convention transformed from an orderly coronation into a messy, days-long drama since the McCain campaign’s disclosure on Monday that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was pregnant. Since then there have been a host of other distractions including charges from top aides that the media has launched a sexist smear campaign against his running mate.

“I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment,” Palin said in her remarks which took aim at the news media as the crowd began lustily booing the press. “And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion; I’m going to Washington to serve. the people of this country.”

Palin spent the first part of her speech introducing her family one by one to the crowd, including her husband, Todd. She also displayed humour in one of her biggest lines of the night when she said that “the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull” was “lipstick”.

Palin’s speech was the big draw of a convention night notable for not a single mention from the stage of the unpopular president, George W. Bush, who addressed the delegates Tuesday via satellite from the White House after the hurricane forced him to cancel his appearance.