New York, Sept. 9 : Republican vice-presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is being hailed as a mix of Lara Croft and Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher.

If the New York Post has praised John McCain’s decision to pick "the charming, but rock-solid, outsider Sarah Palin", the Scotsman has revealed that companies are scrambling to make dolls in Palin''s image.

One shows her as a bespectacled action figure with short white skirt, long black coat and pistol strapped to her thigh.

Republicans hope she can breathe new life into a party already demoralized by eight years of failure.

Palin supporters say "Her views are so right-wing but nobody''s talking about that. We''re talking about her hair, her makeup, her clothes, her small town values.”

Palin, according to them, understands and connects with millions of ordinary Americans bamboozled by the more rhetoric of conventional politicians.

It is this connection, coupled with an ease in speaking to crowds that McCain himself cannot match, that has thrown the election race wide open. (ANI)