Maverick 2.0.

• Author: DiNovella, Elizabeth
• Position: Essay

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The Republican National Convention may have been the place where John McCain officially accepted his party's nomination. But it was Sarah Palin's show.

She dazzled the crowd with her speech at the Xcel Center on the third night of the RNC, and gave a needed boost to a convention that until then had been subdued. A small group of elderly women in the Kansas delegation started chanting "Yes We Can," when Palin talked about shattering the glass ceiling.

Palin is giving the GOP and McCain a chance to re-brand: Maverick 2.0.

The Christian conservatives are thrilled about her and will probably motivate their base to get out the vote. Fiscal conservatives are also happy with the VP choice. And she might manage to rouse young people inside and outside the party. Trey Stinnett, the youngest delegate in the Texas delegation, was "ecstatic" after Palin's speech. "I think Sarah absolutely rocked the house," he said. He was wearing a cowboy hat that had "Palin is hot" scribbled in a black marker.

Laura Cox of Livonia, Michigan, and wife of Michigan's Attorney General Mike Cox, was dressed in a red and white hockey jersey like the rest of her state's delegation. Palin's speech, Cox said, was "a hat trick, if you know anything about hockey."

Ann Mazone, a delegate from Navasota, Texas, works as a special education aide.

Palin's "independent spirit" is something Mazone finds appealing. "I really like that she has a daughter and I understand that. Her daughter is pregnant and she rallied around her. I've been there and that endeared me to her," Mazone said.

Outside the GOP Green Zone, it was a different story. For four days there were protests, and every night ended in tear gas and pepper spray.

On the first day of the convention, tens of thousands of people rallied outside the Capitol building in St. Paul, then marched toward the Xcel Center.

Former FBI agent and whistleblower Coleen Rowley was there with her local peace group. I asked her why. "Where do I start?" she said.

"9/11, and the big mistakes afterwards," she began. She was particularly incensed by the Bush Administration's abuses of the law. "They are using 9/11 as a pretext to launch unjustified wars, among a whole host of illegal actions. We are hoping that the thousands of people here can turn it around."

Tracy Ellingboe is a teacher from Minneapolis who came to the rally to demonstrate her belief in peace and justice. "Also, I want to be eyes and ears," she said.

She...