McCain Forced Into Supporting Role on Tour As Republican Crowds Flock to Palin

For a few minutes yesterday, amid the thousands of cheering supporters, John McCain could at last feel like a political star. If he could only ignore the chanting: "Sarah, Sarah".

That is the sting of reflected glory, but if McCain is suffering a damaged ego at being overshadowed by his vice-presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, he showed no sign of it.

The hockey mum turned Alaska governor has replicated among Republicans the kind of excitement that Democratic activists had for Barack Obama.

Yesterday, with the Obama camp on the defensive against Republican attacks and on the slide in the opinion polls, it was the Republicans' turn to ride a surge of popularity with McCain attracting the biggest crowds since he began his run for the White House.

McCain, who has struggled for months to attract more than a few hundred people to his events, seemed overcome by the sight of so many people spilling out over a lush green Virginia lawn. "I am so grateful for this turnout," he shouted.

But the crowds, with their Republican red T-shirts and "No-bama, Go-mama" badges, were not entirely there for McCain. Some admitted they may not even have bothered to go out to vote for McCain in November if he had not chosen Palin as his running mate. "She definitely for me makes it a slam dunk," said Brian Sullivan, a photographer. "He was already my pick anyway, but this makes it a slam dunk."

In her 10 days on the national stage, Palin has deviated little from her wildly popular convention speech. She has delivered an abbreviated and tamer version in rallies in Missouri, Pennsylvania, and yesterday in Virginia, which Obama is hoping to turn to the Democrats this year, counting heavily on independent voters in northern suburbs like Fairfax.

On stage yesterday Palin, in red high heels with her trademark severe suit, dispensed with her cosy preamble about being a hockey mum and raising five children. She made a bold play for Obama's message of change, accusing the Democrat of being blind to the changes underway in Iraq. "Our opponent, he still can't bring himself to acknowledge that coming victory in Iraq," she said.

Palin then went on to the populist economic themes that resonate with Republican voters fed up with the Bush administration's high spending on the Iraq war: her claim to slashing bloated state budgets in Alaska. "I put the state's chequebook online for all the world to see," she said. "That state luxury jet - that was a little over the top - so I put it on eBay." Then she told how she blocked a wasteful bridge project. "I told Congress thanks, but no thanks, for that bridge to nowhere."

Since Palin burst on the national scene, the Republicans have been forced to admit that Alaska's plane did not actually sell on eBay. Campaign aides also admit that Palin was originally for the "bridge to nowhere" before opposing it.

Further revelations are in the pipeline. Palin headed home to Alaska yesterday to prepare for her first television network interview. Other news organizations are poring over her finances, her style of caribou hunting and her children's lifestyles.

Those details do not matter to Palin's fans, who see her as the most exciting force in presidential politics for years. For committed Republicans, especially social conservatives, she is the binding factor convincing them to vote for a candidate who has somehow never been an entirely comfortable fit with his party base.

"I liked McCain, but I was a little wishy-washy," said Michelle Ferry, an army wife and estate agent, with a baby daughter. "I might not have even voted before."

Cathy Sweetser, a bank worker, said she felt emotionally spent by the encounter. "She has brought youth, the female factor, the younger generation. She has brought, most importantly to me, a lot of women who were sitting on the fence."

Republicans at the rally are open about their previous misgivings about McCain.

At 72, he was too old to be president. He was not a true conservative. He was "too Washington", a prisoner of his 20 years in the Senate in an election when voters seem to want to turn the clock back to Year Zero. And he was dull. Those doubts seem erased with Palin by McCain's side. She provides the excitement, the youth, and the conservative credentials McCain needed. She also gives him an opening to women voters.

The Republicans are also aggressively courting supporters of Hillary Clinton who have yet to warm to Obama. Opinion polls suggest Palin's selection has helped McCain to win over white women voters.

The campaign pressed that home yesterday, with speakers including two women who once counted themselves as Democrats, but were now with McCain.

The appeal is unlikely to go over well with committed Republican women, who generally are hostile to Clinton. But others say they see the same steely intelligence in Palin as they did in Clinton. "I voted for Hillary," said Maria Juliano, a fashion consultant. "I see the same intelligence and guts I saw in her in Palin. She can hold her own against any man and all the politicians - just like Hillary."