WASHINGTON — She winked. She wrinkled her nose. She gave a "shout-out" to a third-grade class.
Never before have American voters met a national politician quite like Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who in her debate debut Thursday night mixed colloquialisms and the manner of a PTA mom while talking about such deadly serious topics as nuclear weapons.
"Ah, say it ain't so, Joe," Palin scolded her debating opponent, Sen. Joe Biden, after he claimed the Republican ticket would merely continue the policies of President Bush. "Now, doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future."
If Palin's goal was to show that she could credibly share the stage with a seasoned politician -- and turn the page after two bruising weeks of unsteady media interviews -- then she succeeded beyond even many Republicans' expectations.
She committed no major mistakes, and delivered a livelier and more rhetorically compelling performance than Biden, 21 years her elder, who appeared most comfortable playing the role of grizzled Senate committee chairman. Where Palin talked of parents nervously discussing the economy at their kids' soccer games, Biden invoked obscure legislative amendments while talking about lessons learned from a late Senate majority leader.
But while Republicans will surely declare victory in the debate (and breathe deep sighs of relief), major questions remain for the GOP ticket.
At a moment when the country is racked by terrifying economic forces, the question facing Palin and her running mate, Republican presidential nominee John McCain, is whether her unusual presence will help the GOP gain enough public confidence to win next month's election.
The woman who has cast herself as a Washington outsider and middle-class PTA mom -- she claimed a commitment to "Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation" -- also sought to attack Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on a variety of national security points, calling his views on meeting with foreign dictators, for example, "beyond naive."
As she put it herself during an exchange with Biden about Iraq, "Oh, man, it's so obvious that I'm a Washington outsider and someone just not used to the way you guys operate."
Voters are paying unusually close attention to Palin, not only because she is the first woman to run on a national Republican ticket but because she is so new to national issues. She would be next in line for the presidency behind a man who would be 76 by the end of his first term.
