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Here in Wasilla, the small Alaskan town where until six years ago Sarah Palin was mayor, her speech officially to accept the Republican Party's Vice Presidential nomination was greeted with tears and disbelief.

Crowded into Tailgaters Sports Bar & Grill on Parks Highway, her friends and most ardent of supporters, many of them wearing 'Go Sarah!' T-shirts and badges that read 'The Hottest Governor of the Coldest State' watched the entire performance at full volume on flatscreen televisions, alternatively cheering, whooping, clapping, dabbing at their eyes, and, finally, giving her a standing ovation. Around them, hockey memorabilia hung from the walls - a reminder of Palin's 'hockey mom' background.

Still wearing his blue Postal Service uniform after a long shift, David Parcha, 47, told The Times: "I've seen this coming for four years, man. When she was inaugurated as governor of Alaska, I told my teenage sons, 'go to the ceremony, this is going to be historic.'"

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He admitted, however, that he was gobsmacked at the speed of her ascent to the race for the White House and impressed with the confidence of her speech. Half way through it, after Palin had witheringly referred to Barack Obama's authorship of two memoirs, Mr Parcha grinned and said, "Not bad, eh?[John] McCain needed her real bad. I wasn't even gonna vote for McCain until he picked Palin. Before that, conservatives didn't have a voice."

Others were similarly impressed.

Overheard comments included: "I was on the fence and now I'm blazing the McCain trail" (a middle-aged woman) and "I wasn't excited until this, now I'm all fired up" (a grey-haired man). Meanwhile, at a table directly underneath one of the TVs, Lu Sackett, 70, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the image of a grizzly bear and a floppy hat decorated with flag pins waved his burger in appreciation when Palin laid into the Democrats' tax plans.

"She's like a moose going after a cabbage," he marvelled.

A woman at Mr Sackett's table pointed out that Mrs Palin knows how to 'field dress' a moose (which means skinning it and chopping it up after killing it, so that you can take the meat home to make stew). "All Alaskan women know how to field strip a moose," said Mr Sackett, nodding. "Besides, she ain't attackin' anyone," he added. "She's just tellin' it how it is."

The bar roared with approval when Track Palin, 19, who recently enlisted in the US Army and will soon to be deployed to Iraq,appeared on camera. "Look!" someone shouted from the crowd. "Track can't believe he's on TV!"

More hilarity ensued when Piper Palin, 7, appeared to spit on her hand and use it to smooth down the hair of Trig, her baby brother. They cheered again for the appearance of Palin's husband, Todd, otherwise known as the 'First Dude'. With Palin's every line of argument, someone shouted "Good Point!", "Yeah!", or "Ser-rah! Ser-ah! Ser-rah!"

Among those who couldn't make it to the Tailgaters bar was Lynette Clark, chair of the Alaskan Independence Party, who last night issued an apology for incorrectly claiming that Palin was once a member of the pro-separatist group. In fact, only Todd Palin was ever a member.

Ms Clark lives just north of Fairbanks, a six hour drive from Wasilla. "My husband and I are both gold miners, and right now we have water flowing through our sluice box, and when that occurs we don't do a lot of socialisin'," she said.

Speaking to The Times before the speech, Ms Clark said she believed that Alaska would one day be independent, and she criticised Mr McCain for having previously campaigned against new oil exploration in the north of the state. But she expressed support for Palin. "I'm very glad she's governor of the state of Alaska, you couldn't find a more apt individual," she said. "In this country, Alaska, they don't care if you're a man or a woman, they care about your word, your reputation. She'd make a fine vice president."

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