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(AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Republican presidential candidate, Sen., John McCain, R-Ariz., listens to the applause of supporters after his nomination acceptance speech last night at the Republican National Convention at the Exel Convention Center in St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 4, 2008.

CLEMSON — Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech Wednesday at the Republican National Convention changed Clemson University political scientist Dave Woodard’s mind.

Just last week, Woodard deemed presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s selection of Palin as his running mate a “disaster.”

“What she’s done is galvanized the GOP base,” Woodard, a former Republican Party advisor, said Thursday. “She got up there last night and delivered a sterling speech.”

Woodard noted the Republicans speaking before Palin at the convention, including Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney, cleared the way for the vice-president nominee.

“They took on some of the heat and criticism leveled at Sarah Palin and rebutted, so she didn’t have to. Criticism about her lack of experience,” Woodard said. “They cleared the path for her. She could talk about foreign policy, energy policy and her loyalty to John McCain. It’s clear she hit a home run. I was shocked at how good a speaker she was.”

According to Woodard, Palin, a self-professed “hockey mom,” draws the National Rifle Association and pro-life crowds. And fellow university professor of political science, Laura Olson, said values voters had been looking for more right-wing feel to the McCain campaign.

“I honestly feel the reason she was added to the ticket was because McCain knew he had some trouble with the Republican base,” Olson said. “While it’s true in a general election you win on the middle — the moderate voters — the base has to be in place first. Values voters were not too excited about McCain, but they were excited when (Palin) was added to the ticket.”

On Thursday, political comedian Jon Stewart joked on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” that Palin appeared to be reciting her speech from a Wikipedia entry. But Olson said TelePrompTers are de facto for party convention spiels.

“Her speech was carefully crafted, and she definitely stuck close to the script,” Olson said. “From a public speaking perspective, she did a much better job than McCain, whose delivery is average at best. If history is any guide — and Dan Quayle is the obvious example — the danger of having someone who hasn’t been in politics all that long (as a running mate) is she can say something that could hurt John McCain more than help him. It seems the McCain camp is trying to minimize the extent to which she can shoot herself in the foot.”

Republican pundit Karl Rove has called for the softening of attacks on Palin, attacks strikingly similar to questions Rove was leveling at Sen. Hillary Clinton just months earlier. Olson said the turnaround was simply the political system at work.

“At the end of the day, concerns like gender, race or religion are secondary to the importance of political parties. They are two competing teams and world views, with a primary goal of winning the selection. Both sides are going to spin, they’d be stupid not to. Going forward over the next few months, voters will have to distill messages through a very heavy partisan lens.”

Because a Republican currently holds the presidency, the GOP was able to hold its convention second. Woodard said the order offered a distinct advantage.

“It’s just like in football for those overtime games. All the teams want to play defense first. You see what you need to overcome,” he said.

Although Olson believes the emergence of Palin to be the big story of the RNC, she said McCain’s effort to distance himself from President George W. Bush was a compelling side plot.

“It’s a tricky dance, and I wouldn’t play down the parallel between Al Gore eight years ago and McCain. In Gore’s case, I think distancing himself from Bill Clinton was a big mistake, especially considering Clinton had a relatively high approval rating for a second term president. McCain distancing himself from Bush is a much smarter play than Gore distancing himself from Clinton.

“McCain is dealing with a situation where even die-hard Republicans are not happy with George W. Bush. President Bush’s name was hardly mentioned all week. And Bush made his speech via satellite, with the convenient story about Hurricane Gustav preventing him from coming. In a way, that was a dream come true, you know, ‘We don’t have to physically have him here.'"

On Thursday, Woodard said McCain’s then-upcoming speech should focus on issues, not retelling prisoner-of-war tales. However, during McCain’s speech, the Arizona senator frequently emphasized his service and sacrifice during the Vietnam War.

Heading toward the November election, Olson believes it’s important for both parties to run campaigns driven more by issues than personality branding.

“One of the ways McCain has attacked Sen. (Barack) Obama is that he has this beautiful, high-flying rhetoric but not being substantial. The idea the Obama is all style and no substance. The danger there is if the McCain team isn’t more substantial themselves, then Obama can say, ‘Hey, these people are saying we’re not substantial, well, they’re not substantial either.’”

Woodard believes two issues have the potential to swing the presidential race: economy and foreign policy. He expects the Democrats to run primarily on the former issue, with the latter being more advantageous to Republicans.

“Look for the interplay between those two issues,” Woodard said.