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WASHINGTON - The force of nature known as Sarah Palin was back at work inside America's living rooms yesterday, attempting to wreak havoc with Barack Obama's hopes.
In the space of a fortnight, she has transformed the national conversation from the urban and economic issues favoured by Mr Obama to the mythical values attributed to smalltown America.
As the public's fascination with the 44-year-old Alaskan Governor grows by the day, she even eclipsed media coverage of the Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
Yesterday, ABC broadcast the second of a three-part exclusive interview series with her.
Under gentle questioning from the veteran news anchor Charlie Gibson, she breezily brushed off criticisms of her plans to drill for oil in Alaska's national wildlife reserve.
She also softened her tone on global warming, denying saying previously that human activity has no role in climate change.
Mrs Palin is professionally trained for the media, thanks to her degree in journalism and a brief career as a sportscaster and her first interviews showed she could smooth talk her way around tricky questions.
In one exchange during the first interview broadcast on Thursday, it became apparent that she did not know what was meant by the "Bush doctrine".
"In what respect, Charlie?" Mrs Palin replied when asked what she thought of the doctrine annunciated in September 2002 before the Iraq war.
Gibson impatiently told her it meant the right of "anticipatory self-defence".
The Governor finally responded: "Charlie, if there is a legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country. In fact, the president has the obligation, the duty to defend."
But this was no Jeremy Paxman-style grilling and tempers were never frayed.
Mrs Palin remaining composed throughout.
She was carefully briefed in advance by a team of advisers from Mr McCain's campaign and the format was more akin to a celebrity interview than a forensic analysis.
It was shot both indoors and outside against a backdrop of Alaska's turning leaves and an enormous shiny oil pipeline.
The ABC interviews culminated in a 40-minute presentation from her hometown of Wasilla which reinforced the message of her speech to the Republican convention when she told 46 million viewers: "We grow good people in our small towns ...
"I grew up with those people. They're the ones who do some of the hardest work in America, grow our food and run our factories and fight our wars. They love their country in good times and bad, and they're always proud of America."
That message strikes a chord with voters who are still wary of having a black Democrat in the White House.
Mrs Palin is a conservative, anti-abortion and pro-gun rights mother of five, whose smalltown message is firing up Republican Party grassroots members and has ignited a surge of momentum for Mr McCain.
- INDEPENDENT
