ST. PAUL—On the way back to my hotel room last night, I sent a text message to a prominent conservative journalist, hoping to get his take on Sarah Palin’s big speech. “Boffo,” he wrote me. “Golden. Perfect. I love that woman.”

That was the general mood in the Xcel Energy Center. As Republican convention goers filed out of the arena, they were gushing over the Alaska governor’s primetime debut, and for good reason.

In terms of style, Palin dazzled. She delivered her applause lines crisply and confidently. Her jokes were well timed and effective. She looked supremely self-assured. At times, the sharpness of her attacks on Senator Barack Obama seemed to (pleasantly) surprise the crowd.

To be sure, there are many valid criticisms of the speech. Palin said relatively little about foreign policy. She offered few specifics on the economy, other than to rail against Obama’s proposed tax hikes. She did not discuss healthcare, Social Security, immigration, climate change, or judges.

But the speech was intended more as a personal introduction than as a detailed policy statement. In that sense, it succeeded mightily.

Palin expressed pride in her small-town roots. She observed that people in small towns “tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco” (a reference to Obama’s infamous comments at a Bay Area fundraiser about “bitter” small-town Americans who “cling” to things like guns and religion). Of the “reporters and commentators” who have spent the past few days disparaging her, Palin said: “I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion.”

As governor, she has “stood up to the special interests, and the lobbyists, and the big oil companies, and the good-old boys.” After touting her own accomplishments in Alaska, Palin praised “Senator McCain’s record of actual achievements and reform.” That record, she argued, “helps explain why so many special interests, and lobbyists, and comfortable committee chairmen in Congress have fought the prospect of a McCain presidency from the primary election of 2000 to this very day.”

Palin did not mention George W. Bush, nor did former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who spoke just before her. (Nor, for that matter, did Fred Thompson or Joe Lieberman, both of whom spoke on Tuesday night.) Indeed, listening to their speeches, one could almost forget that the GOP is the incumbent party in this year’s presidential race. It is understandable that Republicans want to distinguish the McCain-Palin ticket from the current administration, given Bush’s dismal approval rating. But to not mention the sitting two-term president at all? That was striking. (Interestingly enough, Palin’s convention address was drafted by former Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully.)

Palin did devote a significant portion of her speech to energy policy. Prior to becoming governor, she served as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and it’s clear that she will play up her energy background on the campaign trail. She pledged that under a McCain-Palin administration, America would “lay more pipelines, and build more nuclear plants, and create jobs with clean coal, and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources.”

Her speech will inevitably draw comparisons to Obama’s address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Both introduced Americans to a political phenom. Obama’s rise transformed the 2008 presidential race. Palin’s rise may transform it yet again.

Duncan Currie is managing editor of THE AMERICAN.

Image by Getty.