It's pretty hard to imagine a person's life changing over the course of one week much more than Sarah Palin's has.

A week ago Thursday, she was governor of one of the country's least thought about states, someone even many people who were keeping up with John McCain's veepstakes had never even heard of. A mother of five, a woman who had gone from high school basketball star to hockey mom to school board member to mayor to governor in a wild ride.

Last Friday she got the nod from McCain as his vice presidential running mate. Friends and foes alike scrambled to figure out who she was. Many still are.

Three days ago she addressed the nation for the first time in her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

It's hard to imagine a vice presidential pick being such a big part of an election, but this one may well be. And this first speech was the most important acceptance speech for a VP pick as I can ever remember in my years following presidential campaigns.

Palin needed to be poised, persuasive and prepared. She needed to show she could be tough, stand up for herself and have substance.

If she came out and looked weak, overwhelmed or incapable, her call would have blown up in McCain's face. It would have looked like a blatant attempt to just pick a female running mate assuming all of Hillary Clinton's supporters would blindly change sides.

After hearing Sarah Palin, I think she pretty much passed the tests I wanted to see.

She played up again her hockey mom status. Gosh, are there more than 20 or 30 hockey moms out there? I suppose down here they're called soccer moms, huh.

She didn't pull any punches, repeatedly firing away at the Democratic ticket, specifically the experience credentials of Barack Obama.

Here I'll insert my own hockey analogy. When a rookie comes around the National Hockey League, he doesn't typically get to run around, cause trouble, talk trash and just demand the respect of everyone the first few weeks or even years he's there. There's a level of respect that has to be earned from paying one's dues at the very top level of the job for a while.

And if a rookie wants to come out and criticize or beat up on a superstar, many fans and people around the game will think, "Who does he think he is?"

I think more than a few people thought something like that Wednesday about Palin and her tough comments, even some who might have agreed with them. I'm new here but I'll criticize you anyway like I've been in this thing for months or years.

I'd have liked to see more Wednesday with Palin on Palin and what she's done, what she's about and what she can do for us, rather than snipey comments about the other side, no matter how creative and effective she may have been in doing it. Even with the other side doing it to her, it might have been better to take the high road and let those around her who've paid a few more dues say things that might have more effect.

Obviously those who don't agree with her on the issues won't have a lot good to say about her. Nor would they about Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee or any of the other VP prospects that didn't get McCain's call. Dress the cutest baby in a GOP bib and they'd find something mean to say about the kid's overbite or something.

It will be interesting -- and?possibly decisive come November -- to see how those who aren't strongly on the right or left feel about Palin as the weeks go on. From what I have read, and more and more is coming out daily, she's gotten a lot of things done in Alaska but hasn't necessarily made a ton of friends in high places doing it. And like it or not, Washington sure seems like it can be a tough place to succeed without some friends in high places.

One thing that strikes me is that she seems to be real. I watch a lot of politicians and after sometimes just a few seconds wonder if they could be any more robotic or fake. I certainly didn't get that idea from Palin at all.

Her family has real-life things going on. A baby son with Down's Syndrome. A teenage daughter, still under the age of consent but pregnant, we learned within a couple of days after the announcement of Palin's choice.

She and the McCain campaign already have struck back at those who have been critical of the daughter's pregnancy. While both sides of the campaign agree attacks on family members are below the belt, part of running in a campaign for the nation's biggest office, is your family gets held to a lot more scrutiny as well. And people are a lot more interested in what the vice president is doing than the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, or a community organizer in Chicago.

No doubt Democrats will work to show she's in over her head, much as Republicans are working to show the same about Obama. Let's hope both sides are wrong, because one of these two Americans is going to have a big job come January, and the other surely will have big political days ahead as well.

Christian Potts 366-3531 cpotts@normantranscript.com