St. Paul (Minnesota), Sept. 5: Her acceptance speech may have drawn 37 million television viewers, just 1.1 million less than those who heard Barack Obama speak in Denver on August 28, but Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has to now move onto the national stage and prove that she is vice-presidential material.

“She will have to navigate far less controlled campaign settings that will test not only her political skills but also her knowledge of foreign and domestic policy. She must convince the country she is prepared to be vice president at a time when the definition of that job has been elevated to the status of governing partner,” says a New York Times editorial.

“The people who are in the hall — they’ve already been sold, they are the choir. Now the question for her and for McCain and for everybody who is inside the hall is how to clarify their message to the American people,” the editorial quoted John C. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, as saying.

Palin, according to the editorial, could not have asked for a better setting for her solo debut on the national stage, and she drew warm applause as she described her life in Alaska and introduced her family, but her speech also left no doubt that she would take on the traditional role of a ticket’s No. 2 with gusto.

The question is whether someone who is so little known and has what even Republicans describe as a scant résumé has the authority to make those attacks on the opposition credible, says the editorial.

“Clearly, her big task on Wednesday and in the days ahead was to drive home the image the McCain campaign has sought to attach to this unexpected pick: the corruption-fighting governor from outside Washington, a socially conservative mother of five who can easily connect with working-class Americans in a way that Mr. Obama has so far had trouble doing,” it concludes. (ANI)