Lisa Oquist would probably have voted Republican in November. But Sen. John McCain's surprise choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate "reinforced" that inclination.
"She's just very convincing," said Oquist, 44, a stay-at-home mother and Republican, picking up her daughter at Centerville Elementary School in Urbana. "Here's this mom with five kids, and she's very successful. I think that's a real positive for women."
A few miles north on Urbana Pike, Patti Burch, a mother of three, dismissed the Palin pick as "demeaning" and said it only heightened the 57-year-old Democrat's enthusiasm for Sen. Barack Obama.
"Just because you're a mom of five doesn't mean you can run the country," said Burch, who works at the Gaithersburg library.
As Palin got her first taste of the rigors of a national campaign this week, with an ambitious schedule and challenging questions from a network anchor, women across the political spectrum engaged in a robust debate over her candidacy.
Palin's selection changed the contours of the presidential race when she burst on the scene two weeks ago, energizing many Republican-leaning voters who were less than enthusiastic about McCain.
At the same time, it has raised the ire of Democrats, who question her qualifications and views on social issues.
Interviews with two dozen women in Frederick County's fast-growing suburbs found intense interest in Palin that spanned party lines, raising questions about whether her sudden rise to prominence will change the views of women voters.
The impact remains hard to gauge, however, as the Republican ticket's post-convention bounce subsides and Palin continues to make her views known on issues such as war with Russia and Israel's right to attack Iran.
Some polls have found a shift among women - whites in particular - from Obama to McCain. In others, independent voters of both genders appear to be edging McCain's way, but it is not clear why.
"I'm just not convinced it's the Palin effect," said Lydia Saad, senior editor at Gallup, a polling company.
McCain and Obama entered the conventions even, she said, and McCain emerged four points ahead in Gallup polling, a bump Saad attributes more to McCain's compelling life story as a former prisoner of war than to zeal for Palin.
Other polls since then suggest that the race has drawn even again.
