CARSON — You can’t say she didn’t warn them.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin introduced herself to the country with a now-famous joke about lipstick as the only difference between a certain dog breed and a hockey mom. Saturday, the Republican vice-presidential nominee unleashed her inner pit bull, accusing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of being someone who would “pal around with terrorists.”

Her accusation — made in California before an overflow crowd of about 10,000 in the tennis stadium, and earlier in the day at a Denver fundraiser — signaled an increasingly abrasive stance toward Obama on the part of her running mate, Republican nominee John McCain.

In Carson, she signaled her intentions early in her 23-minute speech.

“One of my campaign staff said as I was walking out here, ‘OK, the heels are on, the gloves are off,'” Palin said.

The “terrorists” to whom Palin referred is Chicago education professor William Ayers, a founder of the 1960s radical leftist group the Weather Underground and a sometime acquaintance of Obama.

Palin introduced the attack with a wry observation about her disastrous interview with CBS’ Katie Couric on Monday. During the interview, Palin seemed to draw a blank when asked by Couric which newspapers and magazines she reads. Palin, who told Fox News Channel on Friday that she reads the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications, said she was annoyed by the question.

Buoyed by a well-received performance against her Democratic opponent, Sen. Joe Biden, in their debate Thursday, she playfully apologized for what she described as her “impatient” response to Couric.

“Evidently there’s been a lot of interest in what I read lately,” she said. “I was reading today a copy of the New York Times. And I was really interested to read in there about Barack Obama’s friends from Chicago. Turns out one of his earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times, was a domestic terrorist, that quote ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the United States Capitol.'”

Saturday’s New York Times story, an investigation into whether Obama had a relationship with Ayers, concluded that the men were never close and that Obama has denounced Ayers’ radical past, which occurred when Obama, who was born in 1961, was a child. It also found that he has downplayed their contacts.

“This is not a man who sees America as you and I see America,” Palin said of Obama. “We see America as a force for good in this world. We see America as a force for exceptionalism. … Our opponents see America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who would bomb their own country.”

The Obama campaign responded forcefully. “Governor Palin’s comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign’s statement this morning that they would be launching Swift Boat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation’s economic ills,” Obama-Biden spokesman Hari Sevugan said.

“In fact, the very newspaper story Governor Palin cited in hurling her shameless attack made clear that Senator Obama is not close to Bill Ayers, much less ‘pals,’ and that he has strongly condemned the despicable acts Ayers committed 40 years ago, when Obama was 8. What’s clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy.”

Republicans have long been expected to raise this issue. In August, a major fundraiser for McCain spent $2.8 million on an ad, by the American Issues Project, attacking Obama and raising questions about his relationship with Ayers. (The contributor, Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, also helped fund Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that damaged Democratic Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign when it called his military record into question.)

California is a reliably Democratic state in the presidential race, but it also is a reliable source of cash for Republicans. After the Carson rally Saturday, Palin attended a fundraiser in Costa Mesa. Today, she was scheduled to headline a fundraiser in Burlingame, then head to Florida, while McCain takes time to prepare for his debate with Obama on Tuesday in Nashville.

In Carson, Palin was interrupted at least 10 times by protesters, who were in turn shouted down by the crowd. She said her father, Chuck Heath, was born in North Hollywood and that her grandfather was a Los Angeles photographer who specialized in shooting boxers.

“I learned a few points about fighting from him,” she said. “I have a connection with L.A. and I’ll milk it as long as I can,” she added, as the crowd roared its approval.