A party united

Galvanized by Palin pick, GOP's conservative base ready to fight

ST. PAUL - Jolted by Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin joining John McCain on its party's ticket, the conservative Republican base may finally be as fired up and ready to go as the liberal activists backing Democrat Barack Obama.

During the fight for the nomination, McCain was not the choice of many of the mandarins of the party's right, and his support in some conservative quarters remained desultory, at least until the Palin pick came out of the blue last week and then rocked the convention on Wednesday night.

"This is arguably the most politically successful vice presidential selection, at least in the short term, since John F. Kennedy picked Lyndon Johnson in 1960," said Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition and now a consultant in Atlanta. "I've been to every convention since 1984, and I've never seen the selection of a running mate electrify a convention the way this one did."

Another Christian conservative leader, the Rev. Pat Robertson, said on CNN yesterday that Palin is the "most exciting Republican politician since Ronald Reagan."

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, which supports female candidates who oppose abortion rights, said the choice of Palin was a stunning but welcome surprise and instantly had a galvanizing effect. "Before the announcement, it was just a very depressed base, there's no two ways about it," she said.

In advance of the announcement, her organization had written 10 different press releases, each calibrated to respond to the various names being floated as possible running mates for McCain. Palin, her group's first choice, was not among them, she said.

Dannenfelser said she was instead prepared to cope with the selection of either of two abortion rights advocates, former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge or Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, "and try to figure out how are we going to do this."

"It was going to be a job, a very hard job, to mobilize our women voters," Dannenfelser said. "But now it's not just a job, it's a passion."

She said the pick has generated "overwhelming enthusiasm and excitement" among abortion opponents and the broader conservative community.

Palin, Dannenfelser said, is "the poster child" for the antiabortion movement because of her personal experiences. Palin, who opposes abortion except when a mother's life is endangered, gave birth in April to a child she knew had Down syndrome, and her five-months pregnant 17-year-old daughter plans to give birth to her child and marry the father.

"I don't think there's any question that the party is not only unified but enthusiastic behind the McCain-Palin ticket," said former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who battled McCain for the nomination and was on his short list of potential running mates. "I think the pick removed any questions that people in the party had about the direction John McCain is heading."

Romney, who vigorously attacked McCain's conservative credentials during the primaries, said the convention "could have gone in a different direction," apparently referring to the fact that the campaign was floating Ridge and Lieberman as potential running mates.

"Now, the question is will he be able to get the majority of independents and a good bloc of Democrats," Romney said. "That's what the next weeks will decide."

Palin is an unfamiliar figure in national politics, but as a deeply conservative Alaskan, a Washington outsider, and a female hunting enthusiast, is clearly intriguing. Her convention speech Wednesday night drew a huge national television audience. An appearance with McCain in Pennsylvania last Saturday, the day after he announced her as his running mate, drew about 17,000, the largest attendance at a McCain campaign event to date.

Palin, however, has yet to submit to interviews and her background remains the subject of ongoing scrutiny by news organizations and the Democrats.

Nevertheless, Reed believes she will help the Republican ticket beyond the base in rural and suburban America and among women balancing family responsibilities and careers.

"They will want her to succeed because she represents shaking up Washington, taking on corruption in both parties, and devolving power away from Washington," Reed said.

But Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic strategist in Boston, said Palin will not appeal to moderate and independent voters, and said she is almost purely as an instrument "to fire up the base" of the Republican Party.