US:SARAH PALIN has returned to Alaska for the first time since becoming the Republican vice-presidential candidate, speaking yesterday at a deployment ceremony for 4,000 soldiers, including her 19-year-old son Track, who are going to Iraq, writes Denis Stauntonin Fairbanks, Alaska.
Three thousand people turned out to see Ms Palin when she arrived late on Wednesday night in Fairbanks, about 350 miles north of Anchorage.
"Everywhere we're going, the response really has been overwhelming," she told the crowd, which spilled out of a vast aircraft hangar.
"I knew the coldest state would give us the warmest welcome."
One sign in the crowd said "Read my lipstick: Sarah, Sarah," a reference to Ms Palin's joke at the Republican convention that the difference between a "hockey mom" and a pitbull was lipstick.
Another alluded to the controversy over Barack Obama's use of the phrase "putting lipstick on a pig", which Republicans claim was a slur on Ms Palin.
"You can put lipstick on a community organiser but they're still just a community organiser," the sign read.
A few dozen Obama supporters gathered outside the rally but the mood was overwhelmingly celebratory and Ray Perdue, who works in a Fairbanks hotel, said the whole of Alaska was cheering Ms Palin.
"We're so excited for her, but we'll miss her here. She's done more for this state than all the last governors put together. She's not afraid of big oil. She's not afraid of anything. And she's not afraid of Barack Obama," he said.
Ms Palin's son is being deployed to Iraq with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, which will fly out of Alaska on a series of flights later this month.
The governor is spending part of the weekend at her home in Wasilla before returning to the campaign trail where she has helped John McCain to surge in recent polls.
Mr McCain has a slight lead over Mr Obama in an average of national polls, and a series of new polls published this week show the race moving towards a tie in the key battleground states of Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Ms Palin's impact on the Republican ticket has been so powerful that she and Mr McCain are considering more joint appearances than running mates usually make during the final weeks of the campaign.
As the Obama campaign struggles to decide how to counteract the Palin phenomenon, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden admitted that he may not have been the best choice.
"Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice-president of the United States of America," he said at a rally in New Hampshire.
"She's a truly close personal friend, she is qualified to be president of the United States of America, she's easily qualified to be vice-president of the United States of America, and quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me."