The Note: Shades of Palin

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 3, 2008 -- ST. PAUL, Minn. --

The war over Gov. Sarah Palin's image is on. (And Team McCain can only hope that it's not already lost.)

What the McCain campaign realizes is that there are two Republican National Conventions now underway -- one in St. Paul, and one back home.

In the first, inside the hall, they feel good about being Republicans again. The party's stars are cycling through (where was this Fred Thompson last year?), the nominee has delegates' (and -- thanks, Joe Lieberman -- one big Democrat's) blessing, and there's this new young partner who's got everyone buzzing.

But -- as clear as that giant, high-definition American flag rippling behind the podium -- none of that may matter over in that other convention that's playing out in the press reports that seep into American homes.

Certainly not if the running mate doesn't impress Wednesday (and probably not if the McCain-Palin operation can't control the media firestorm before she takes the stage).

The broad issue this Wednesday: The campaign is perilously close to losing control of Palin's image -- and thus the stakes are raised for a speech that was going to be the most closely watched of the convention anyway.

"Core conservatives are smitten with the 44-year-old governor, who opposes abortion in all cases, including rape and incest. And millions of dollars in donations have poured in," Peter Wallsten and Doyle McManus write in the Los Angeles Times. "But Republican strategists don't know how she will play among moderate swing voters, including blue-collar Democrats, who have been moving toward Barack Obama but might like Palin's middle-class roots."

Said former Bush adviser Dan Bartlett: "There's no middle ground on this for John McCain. . . . She is either going to be a wild success or a spectacular failure."

"It's going to be a wild ride," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., tells USA Today.

Here comes the pushback: Team McCain plays the gender card and the media-bias card with a full-on offensive -- press conferences, surrogate TV and radio appearances (designed to demand fair treatment for Palin and her family), plus a new ad:

"The McCain campaign will launch a television ad directly comparing Governor Palin's executive experience as a governor who oversees 24,000 state employees, 14 statewide cabinet agencies and a 10 billion dollar budget to Barack Obama's experience as a one-term junior Senator from Illinois," a campaign aide tells The Note.

As for McCain himself: After landing in Minneapolis around noon CT, he sits down with ABC's Charles Gibson Wednesday in St. Paul -- his only pre-acceptance-speech interview in the convention city. (Watch for portions starting with "World News" Wednesday.)

Palin, R-Alaska, will be the featured prime-time speaker in day three of a convention that didn't really start until day two. (She did her walk-through early Wednesday -- in time to get some face time on the morning shows. She answered a quick question from ABC's Ann Compton, saying: "I'm excited to get to speak to Americans. This will be good. It's about reform.")

"The McCain campaign scrambled to take control of the public debate over vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin, canceling her public appearances and teaming her with high-powered Republican operatives as she prepared for a speech Wednesday night that will be her first, and perhaps most important, chance to define herself to the American public," per The Wall Street Journal.

"While vice-presidential candidates traditionally act as the chief attackers of the opponents, Gov. Palin's speech will focus on her personal narrative and legislative record, not on criticizing the Democratic ticket, said a senior McCain adviser," the Journal reports.

Interesting nugget: "The Xcel arena, the convention site, will be packed with 20,000 people. The largest indoor venue in Alaska holds about 8,000."

How she's playing on the supermarket aisles: "BABIES, LIES & SCANDAL," screams the headline on the cover of US Weekly.

Remember this: "Less than a week ago, Sarah Palin was a little-known rookie governor of a remote state, a working mother of five with an infant son, a woman whose life has been forged in the splendor and isolation of the Alaskan wild," Kevin Diaz writes in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

As for the McCain operation -- itself the story as questions turn to what aides knew and when about the drip-drip of Palin factoids -- these words will be the last words the campaign hopes to put out about whether everyone did their homework:

"This vetting controversy is a faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States who has never been a part of the old boys' network that has come to dominate the news establishment in this country," McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt says in a statement going out Wednesday.

"Senator McCain picked his governing partner after a long and thorough search. Governor Palin looks forward to addressing the nation and laying out the fundamental choice this election represents for the American people," he continues. "The McCain campaign will have no further comment about our long and thorough process. This nonsense is over. . . . The American people get to do the vetting now on Election Day."

The prepping: "Sitting around a dining room table, the McCain team has talked to her about Iraq, energy and the economy, but has focused on what she should say in her speech, struggling almost as hard as she has to prepare for what will be, along with a debate in October, her main opportunity to shape the way she is viewed by voters," Juliet Eilperin and Robert Barnes write in The Washington Post.

"Not anticipating that McCain would choose a woman as his running mate, the speech that was prepared in advance was 'very masculine,' according to campaign manager Rick Davis, and 'we had to start from scratch,' " they write. "Aides to McCain and Palin were still debating elements of the speech, according to several GOP sources familiar with the process, including whether the governor should make reference to her 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy."

Says Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.: "She can do fine in foreign policy because of the infrastructure we have around us. She's smart and she will learn over time." (Umm -- maybe knowing this stuff might have been a prerequisite for being offered the job?)

Palin will follow former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, R-N.Y. -- sure to fire up the crowd even if we've heard this speech before. (Also possible Wednesday night: the former rivals -- who are former governors: Mitt Romney, R-Mass., and Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.)

They'll love her in St. Paul, and she gets one shot to turn it all (or most of it) around in that other, broader convention.