The Republican Party’s conservative Christian base had been lukewarm, even wary of the 72 year-old McCain, but in picking the deeply conservative Palin to join him on the ticket and attacking the news media for scrutinizing her record, the four-term Arizona senator energized what had been a lackluster convention.

Palin has gone in one week from virtual unknown to one of the most controversial figure in American politics, and her speech was the most anticipated event of the four-day convention. She clearly sated Republicans in the overflowing Xcel Center who had been hungering to hear slashing attacks on Democratic nominee Barack Obama and assurances that she and McCain were their kind of people.

In the glow of Palin’s address, McCain locked up the nomination late Wednesday in an anti-climatic roll call vote of delegates who appeared far more at ease with their candidate and more hopeful that the self-styled maverick could overcome the legacy of George W. Bush and give their party four more years in the White House.

It is not clear how Palin’s speech will affect the overall race, but judging by the thunderous applause in the convention center, party loyalists were enraptured by her timing and clear willingness to take on the role of attacking Obama.

Palin took special care in introducing her husband and five children, including a son who is a soldier heading to Iraq, a 17-year-old unwed pregnant daughter and a son born in April with Down syndrome.

“Our family has the same ups and downs as any other, the same challenges and the same joys,” she said.

She mixed praise for McCain, quips about small-town life, and criticism of Washington insiders with smiling but sarcastic assaults on Obama.

“Victory in Iraq is finally in sight; he wants to forfeit,” she said. “Al-Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America; he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.”

McCain made his first convention appearance after the speech to embrace Palin and her family.

“Don’t you think we made the right choice for the next vice president of the United States,” McCain asked through deafening noise in the hall after Palin’s polished appearance, her first before a national television audience.

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