Anchorage Daily News

LANCASTER, Pa. -- For the women attending a campaign event in Lancaster County, Sarah Palin might as well be at the top of the Republican ticket.

"I like the way she's going to bring Washington down to earth," said Erin Gilsbach, 30, who drove from Allentown with her sister, husband and two daughters to hear the Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee speak Tuesday. "Everyone talks about it, but I get the feeling she's going to do it."

That's exactly what worries Democrats, who see women in Pennsylvania and other states who might have voted for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton turning to Palin -- No. 2 on the Republican ticket led by Arizona Sen. John McCain.

"We haven't closed the deal in America, and we certainly haven't closed the deal in Pennsylvania," said Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat who stopped in Lancaster to campaign for Sen. Barack Obama on Monday. "We have a lot of work to do."

For most women attending the event -- many waited two hours in line to get into a field house at Franklin & Marshall College -- Palin was a bigger draw than McCain. An estimated 10,000 people found parking wherever they could near the school, hoofing it with umbrellas in muggy weather to the rally.

The prerally chants for "Sarah, Sarah" were louder than "We want McCain." Palin was even introduced first. Women wore pink "Hot Chicks Vote Republican" buttons; one hoisted a McCain placard bearing a hand-scrawled message: "Guns, God, Lipstick."

"She's kind of overshadowing McCain at the moment," said Leah Herrold, 35, a registered Republican and a nurse. "But she's overshadowing Obama, too. She's overshadowing everyone at the moment."

"I was really undecided, but I think she (Palin) has swayed me," said Susan Engle, a 42-year-old registered Democrat from Lancaster. "I look at her and I see a normal, everyday woman. Her problems are the problems of a lot of families."

It's not so much her politics as it is her personality, said Engle, a lab technician. "I'm not up on her politics, honestly, it was more the fact she has a family and a career."

When asked about Palin's level of experience, with less than two years as governor of Alaska, men and women both shrug and point to Obama. The Democratic presidential candidate has no executive experience and is a first-term U.S. senator, countered Mary Louise Boszkowski of Valley Forge.

"She's a leader," Boszkowski said of Palin. "When you have that ability, you can motivate people, get things done."

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