The address by Gov. Sarah Palin, 44, who stunned the political world last week as Senator McCain’s pick for a running mate, took place before a convention transformed from an orderly coronation into a messy, days-long drama since the McCain campaign’s disclosure on Monday that Ms. Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was pregnant.

The legacy of Geraldine Ferraro was supposed to be that no one would ever go on a blind date with history again. But that crazy maverick John McCain has done it, and conservatives and evangelicals are rallying around him in admiration of his cynical choice of Sarah Palin, an evangelical Protestant and anti-abortion crusader.

Within moments of the announcement, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin made an explicit appeal to the disappointed supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton by praising not only Mrs. Clinton but also the only other woman in American history who has been on a presidential ticket, Geraldine A. Ferraro.