The Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, yesterday defended his choice of running mate, Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, in the face of widespread scorn that she lacks experience, especially in foreign policy.

Asked about her lack of experience on Fox News Sunday, McCain said: "She's been commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard ... she's had judgment on these issues. She's had 12 years of elected office experience, including travelling to Kuwait."

Republicans accused Palin's critics of being sexist in their readiness to dismiss her. The appointment of the social conservative as vice-presidential nominee, has been enthusiastically greeted by the party's rightwing.



One of McCain's closest advisers, Senator Lindsey Graham, said she had more experience than McCain's presidential opponent, Barack Obama. "She's been a governor ... that's more than Obama."

Palin's appointment came as a surprise to Obama's campaign team, which immediately criticised her lack of experience. But Obama later changed the tone to politely welcome the historic nature of having the first woman on a Republican ticket. His campaign team dispatched staff to Alaska to look into her background, including her initial support for the state's expensive and infamous Ketchikan bridge, known better as the Bridge to Nowhere.

Although opinion polls taken over the weekend are being eagerly awaited by both camps, Real Clear Politics, a website that tracks major polls and provides a running average, yesterday had Obama on 47% and McCain on 44%. In the battlefield states, Obama was ahead in Pennsylvania and McCain in Florida, with the two tied in Ohio.

In a theme echoed by other Democrats throughout the day, Senator John Kerry, the failed Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2004, described Palin as having been picked to placate the Republican party's rightwing, which is suspicious of McCain. Kerry told ABC News: "He's chosen somebody who doesn't believe climate change is man-made."

He said it was insulting to Hillary Clinton supporters to suggest that Palin, given her anti-abortion and other socially conservative views, might woo them.

The former Democratic Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle, described the appointment as "inexplicable".

But Rush Limbaugh, whose radio show attracts millions of rightwing listeners, enthusiastically welcomed her. "Palin equals guns, babies, Jesus ... Obama just lost blue-collar, white Democratic voters in Pennsylvania and other states," Limbaugh said. James Dobson, the conservative Christian leader who had been opposed to McCain, said the selection of Palin had won him over.

After appearing with McCain at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Friday, Palin made her second campaign speech on Saturday near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her stop in Pittsburgh showed a vulnerability that could be a worry for McCain. Some of the audience left as she was speaking and there was booing when, in an appeal to Democratic voters to switch to McCain, she mentioned Hillary Clinton.

As the Republicans wheel out their latest asset, there is still disagreement on how to deploy one of their oldest: the incumbent president. As George Bush ends his second term in office, he has acquired the distinction among the general American population of being one of the most disliked presidents in history, alongside Harry Truman and Richard Nixon, with his popularity rating at about 28%.

Although polls show that two out of three Republican loyalists still continue to think highly of Bush, the loathing with which he is now regarded by huge swaths of the country has a direct bearing on the re-election hopes of scores of Republican members of Congress in swing states. Unless Bush is kept in the shadows their jobs could be on the line in November.

While part of the alliance of interests in the so-called Reagan coalition continue to adore the president, others are disillusioned by him. Top of the list of the disgruntled are the economic conservatives, for whom tight public spending, tax cuts and balanced budgets are key.

Equally livid is the libertarian wing that has been an influential part of the movement since the 1960s. It defines conservatism as vesting power in the individual, free of government interference, but blames Bush for having extended the reach of Washington more than any other president since Lyndon Johnson. On the other side of the widening rift within US conservatism, the Christian right remains broadly supportive of the president.

· This article was amended on Monday September 1 2008. We incorrectly gave the name of Senator Lindsey Graham as Senator Graham Lindsey. This has been corrected.