ST. PAUL, MINN. — ST. PAUL, MINN. - A self-assured Sarah Palin passed a huge test this week by skillfully executing the biggest speech of her career.
Now comes another question: What's next?
Palin won high marks from both parties for her delivery of an address that attracted a record-breaking audience for a vice presidential nominee and buttressed her worth as the first woman on a Republican ticket.
But the role she will play as the campaign enters its most critical phase remains uncertain.
Poll numbers released in the days ahead will show how well Palin has been received by a voting public that split, largely along party lines, over the content of the message she delivered Wednesday. The McCain campaign will also show how it views her by the type of appearances it schedules.
Palin and John McCain are to appear together today in Wisconsin and Michigan, and the campaign says she will begin her solo tour Sunday. But officials have not announced those locations or indicated the level of media access.
Sandra B. Schrader, a former Republican state senator from Howard County, said Palin has shown she can be an effective campaigner.
"I don't think they are going to hide her at all," she said. "They didn't choose her to hide her ... her nature is not to be the pretty face behind the curtain."
Since John McCain plucked Palin from obscurity last week, her image had been shaped heavily by news coverage of her tenure as Alaska's governor and her family. Palin's task on Wednesday was to show that she belonged on a national stage, and her forceful defense gave her some breathing room, at least temporarily. The address was seen by 37 million television viewers, nearly as many as watched Barack Obama speak in a Denver football stadium last week.
"I was very impressed with her delivery and the message. I was very happy to see she was very comfortable," said Schrader, a moderate who, unlike Palin, supports abortion rights, .
"I do have a lot of Democratic friends, and they thought she hit it out of the park," Schrader said.
But Democrats and Republicans are split over Palin's message and whether she possesses the qualifications to be president if necessary.
Jim Brochin, a moderate Democratic state senator from Towson, called Palin's speech "solid." But the assured performance, he said, may not translate into votes. "At the end of the day, that she doesn't believe in abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, is a killer," he said. "In my district, I don't see how she gets around that."
