Palin charms and invigorates on night before the cameras

A star was born last night.

Feisty and smart, tripping rarely on her words, Sarah Palin accomplished what she needed to do, introducing herself as a legitimate national candidate who knows how to gleam through a TV camera.

Speaking authoritatively and forcefully as an energy expert, while also presenting herself as a hockey mom, Palin charmed and invigorated her audience at the Republican National Convention.

"The difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull," she quipped: "lipstick."

And she exhibited pit-bull assertiveness in strong attacks on Barack Obama, while boosting the candidacy of her running mate.

Sporting a broad Midwestern accent despite spending all but three months of her life in Alaska, she also touched on home and hearth.

"Our family has the same ups and downs as any other," she said, without being specific. She promised families with special-needs children like her younger son, Trig, that they would have an advocate in Washington if she and John McCain were elected.

Like everybody else last night, she attacked the "media elite," doing it more forcefully and with more humor than all but that old crowd-pleaser, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

She spoke about cost-cutting as Alaska governor. "That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay."

She hit a feminist fastball. "This is America, and every woman can walk through every door of opportunity."

Palin was preceded by the three major candidates McCain defeated in the primaries.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney spoke of vanquishing "radical, violent Islam."

"U.S.A., U.S.A.," the conventioneers cheered, as though they were at a hockey game.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Giuliani rounded out the trail of the not-so-tearful defeated. Unlike Romney, both said that, after themselves, they had supported McCain.

Huckabee continued the attack on the "media elite," which has turned into a theme of this convention, calling coverage of Palin "tackier than a costume change at a Madonna concert."

Giuliani was more direct, citing Obama's 130 "present" votes in the Illinois state legislature. "He couldn't figure out whether to vote yes or no. It was too tough," Giuliani said, waving his hands and making a face.

Palin was picked as a possible game changer, said CNN's Carl Bernstein, because McCain knew he was "outside the margins of error for victory."

She still has a long road to Washington, but she wasn't left at the starting gate.