Inauguration

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CBS 5 / AP) ― Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claimed her spot as the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee Wednesday night, uncorking a smiling, sarcastic attack on Democrat Barack Obama and winning cheers of acceptance and approval after a tumult-filled first week on the national stage.

The embattled novice on the national stage vowed to the Republican National Convention - and millions more around the country - that she would help presidential nominee John McCain bring real change to Washington, saying "he's a man who's there to serve his country and not just his party."

McCain joined her on stage, to even bigger cheers, and then the delegates went about the business of formally awarding the nomination he had sought for nearly a decade. At 72, the Arizona senator is the oldest first-time nominee in history.

The 44-year-old Palin, scarcely known a week ago, had top billing on the third night of the convention. She spoke to uncounted millions of viewers at home in her solo national debut after days of tabloid-like scrutiny of her and her family.

Some of the biggest roars were for her barbs aimed at the Democratic presidential nominee.

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

To the delight of the delegates, McCain strolled unexpectedly onto the convention stage after the speech and hugged his running mate.

"Don't you think we made the right choice" for vice president? he said as his delegates roared their approval. It was an unspoken reference to the convention-week controversy that has greeted her, including the disclosure that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter was pregnant.

Other disclosures followed, including that a private attorney is authorized to spend $95,000 of state money to defend her against accusations of abuse of power and that Palin sought pork-barrel projects for her city and state, contrary to her reformist image.

But the packed convention hall exploded in cheers from the moment Palin stepped onto the convention stage, hundreds of camera flashes reflecting off her glasses.
 
If McCain and his campaign's high command had any doubt about her ability at the convention podium, they needn't have. With her youthful experience as a sportscaster and time spent in the governor's office, her timing was flawless, her appeal to the crowd obvious.

"Our family has the same ups and downs as any other, the same challenges and the same joys," she said as the audience signaled its understanding.

Indeed, the family was on display for the TV cameras. Their mother lacked the soaring oratory skills of Obama - a man she attacked as a tax-raising, terrorist-coddling, self-indulgent liberal. But she spoke in calm, TV-friendly tones reminiscent of Ronald Reagan. Like the former GOP president, Palin warmed the crowd with quips and jokes.

"What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull," she said, pausing for a beat and a smirk. "Lipstick."

She left the crowd smiling. 

Palin traced her career from the local PTA to the governor's office, casting herself as a maverick in the McCain mold, and seemed to delight in poking fun at her critics and her ticketmate's political rivals.
 
Largely unknown outside her home state, Palin told the convention: "I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better," she said, speaking of her home town of Wasilla, Alaska, with a population of about 6,500.

"When I ran for city council, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too," she said.

Since taking office as governor, she said she had taken on the oil industry, brought the state budget into surplus and vetoed nearly one-half billion dollars in wasteful spending.

"I thought we could muddle through without the governor's personal chef - although I've got to admit that sometimes my kids sure miss her."

Not surprisingly, her best-received lines were barbs at Obama.

Before becoming governor, Palin explained how she had served as mayor of Wasilla: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a `community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities." 

The remark was a reference to Obama's stint as a community organizer before he went on to serving in the Illinois state senate and later the U.S. Senate.

"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," she said.

That was a reference to Obama's springtime observation at a private San Francisco fundraiser about some frustrated working-class Americans.

By contrast, she said of McCain: "Take the maverick out of the Senate. Put him in the White House. He's a man who's there to serve his country, and not just his party."

"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers," she said in another cutting reference to Obama's campaign theme. "And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."

A parade of party luminaries preceded Palin to the convention podium, and Republicans packing the hall cheered every attack on Obama.

"He's never run a city, never run a state, never run a business, never run a military unit. He's never had to lead people in crisis," said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani of McCain's rival.

"This is not a personal attack ... it's a statement of fact - Barack Obama has never led anything. Nothing. Nada."
 
The Obama campaign reacted by noting that Palin's speech was "written by George Bush's speechwriter and sounds exactly like the same divisive, partisan attacks we've heard from George Bush for the last eight years." The speech was written by Matthew Scully, who met Palin for the first time last week.

Palin also jabbed in the speech at the news media, which have raised convention week questions about her background and her family.

"Here's 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."

McCain arrived in the Republican National Convention city earlier in the day to accept the prize of a political lifetime. Instantly, he defended his choice of a running mate, saying she was ready to serve as commander in chief after less than two years as governor of Alaska.

"Oh, absolutely," he said in an ABC News interview.

"Having been the governor of our largest state, the commander of their National Guard, she was once in charge of their natural resources assets actually, until she found out there was corruption and she quit," McCain said. 

The campaign depicted Palin's critics as out to destroy the first female running mate in Republican history.

While she readied the speech of her career, McCain's top strategist, Steve Schmidt, complained about a "faux media scandal," generated, he said, by "the old boys' network that has come to dominate the news establishment."

Not everyone was quite on message, though.

"I think that Gov. Palin and Sen. Obama do not have extensive experience in government," Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania told reporters. He said she has potential, and judged Obama a "political phenomenon, no doubt about it." 

A new celebrity herself, Palin cast Obama as a little more than a fancy speaker with a compelling biography.

"The American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of 'personal discovery.' This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn't just need an organizer," Palin said, another clear reference to Obama's time as a community organizer in Chicago.

Palin delivered her speech in a firm, cheerful voice. It was her first chance to introduce and define herself to the American public and, after it was done, her family joined her on stage. She cuddled her 4-month-old son, Trig, and waved at the adoring crowd like the beauty pageant contestant she once was.

But analysts noted that one speech does not a campaign make. Kept at arm's length from the media in the days leading up to the address, Palin now heads out on the campaign trail, where events are less rehearsed, crowds less friendly and the environment less controlled. Even as she spoke, airplanes in Alaska were unloading reporters and political operatives sent to pore through her personal and public life.

Political experts believe a bigger test still lies ahead at the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate with her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)