Palin put on defensive over firing and fashion More Republican moderates give Obama their backing in Washington

SARAH PALIN has testified for the first time about her controversial firing of an Alaska police chief, amid new revelations about the cost of her fashion makeover to the Republican campaign.

Mrs Palin and her husband Todd yesterday gave sworn depositions about the Alaska firing, which a legislative inquiry said last month was within the law although Mrs Palin had broken ethics rules by pushing for her former brother-in-law to be sacked from the state police force.

Mrs Palin was embarrassed this week by news that the Republican campaign spent $150,000 on a new wardrobe for her since the party's convention last month. Yesterday, it emerged that Mrs Palin's make-up artist is the most highly- paid figure on the McCain campaign, earning $22,800 in the first two weeks of August alone.

Mrs Palin has insisted that she did not ask for the new clothes, which will be given to charity after the campaign is over. "Those clothes are not my property. We had three days of using clothes that the RNC purchased," she told Fox News.

"If people knew how Todd and I and our kids shop so frugally. My favourite shop is a consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska, called Out of the Closet. And my shoe store is called Shoe Fly in Juneau, Alaska . . . It's not, you know, Fifth Avenue-type of shopping."

In an interview with NBC News last night, Mrs Palin said she is not thinking about her political future after the election.

"As for furtherance in a political career, I'm not even thinking about that, I'm thinking between now and November 4th what it is that we have to do in reaching out to the electorate, letting them know who John McCain is, what we represent and how electing John McCain is the right decision for the future of America," she said.

With polls showing Mr McCain trailing in almost all the battleground states, three more moderate Republicans have followed Colin Powell in declaring their support for Barack Obama.

Former Massachusetts governor William Weld declared his support for the Democrat yesterday, a day after former Minnesota governor Anne Carlson said she saw in the Democrat "the clear possibility of a truly great president". Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan also endorsed Mr Obama this week.

Despite the polls, Mr McCain believes he can still win the election by portraying Mr Obama as intent on redistributing wealth and questioning the Democrat's preparedness to deal with a national security crisis. A new McCain ad put out yesterday featured the stray remark by Democratic running mate Joe Biden that Mr Obama would be tested by an international crisis within months of taking office. The ad shows footage of Islamist radicals in combat fatigues, Russian tanks rolling into Georgia and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez addressing a crowd, ending with the words: "It doesn't have to happen."

Mr McCain's team acknowledges that the Republican must win Pennsylvania, which backed John Kerry in 2004, if he is to win the election. With dwindling resources and tough battles in traditional Republican strongholds such as Virginia and North Carolina, however, Mr McCain has an uphill climb.

Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg predicted yesterday that his party was in position for "an earthquake election" on November 4th, suggesting that Mr McCain and Mrs Palin had already lost the argument on the economy by focusing on tax cuts. "They are losing on their central arguments," he said.

"They can't see that what they take for granted loses them independents."

Mr Obama left the hustings yesterday to visit his 85-year-old grandmother, who is gravely ill. In an interview done before he left for Hawaii, Mr Obama said he was determined to see his grandmother, who broke her hip recently, before it is too late. "You know, we weren't sure, and I'm still not sure, whether she makes it to election day. We're all praying and we hope she does," he said.

Mr Obama, who was partly raised by his grandmother while his mother lived in Indonesia, said he would probably spend time doing work around her house. "I want to give her a kiss and a hug," he said. "And then we're going to find out what chores I can do, because I'm sure there's some stuff that's been left undone."