US Election: Wasilla Cheers Its Hometown Heroine - Sarah Palin

The instant you walked into the Mug-Shot Saloon, a hard-drinking straight-talking bar on the outskirts of town, there were a couple of clues as to the loyalties of its clientele. The first was a big sign up advertising the "Palin special" – an eight-inch sausage pizza doing a brisk trade at only $6.

The second clue was the fact that the packed crowd of more than 100 locals - a lavish turn out for a week night - was cheering the wooden roof off whenever the woman speaking on the enlarged flat-screen television made a point. It began the moment she said that she accepted the nomination as Republican vice-presidential candidate, which prompted hoots and cat whistles all around the bar.

It continued when Sarah Palin said that her nomination showed that every woman can walk through every door of opportunity, which had all of the many women in the saloon applauding. And it reached a peak when she cracked just about the only joke of her speech: what's the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick.

A saloon bar crowd on the edge of Wasilla - the town where Palin grew up and where she was mayor in the late 1990s before going on to become Alaska's first female governor - is hardly representative of the American electorate. Everyone seemed to know her or at least to have met her.

But if the frequent shouts of "Go girl!" and "Yeah baby!" tell us anything, it is that Palin's direct and earthy delivery last night will speak volumes to the conservative heartland that until now has remained so uncertain about the candidacy of John McCain. As Leone Harris put it: "It's about time the vice-president had balls. And Sarah Palin has balls."

Leah Bragg said Palin had talked "straight to America's heart - she told it like it is." Her mother had received political support from Palin when she waged a battle in Alaska to lower taxes on cigarettes (you can smoke freely in a libertarian state like Alaska and the bar was full of smoke).

Vickie Dyas responded warmly when Palin told the convention that her son Track was about to go to Iraq. "My daughter's already there. Been there since March. So I know how she's feeling as a mom."

Larry Evanson gave the most expansive praise. He said the speech showed America the potential of a woman who could one day be president herself. "I think Sarah just won this election, not McCain. She's one hell of a woman. I know that - I live here."