Alaska Governor Sarah Palin delivered a hotly awaited speech Wednesday night to accept the Republican nomination for Vice President. The speech also served as her introduction to most of the voters of America, and for them she created a memorable first impression of herself: A pitbull with lipstick.

Explaining how she got her political start at the PTA level, Palin told the RNC crowd: "I was just your average hockey mom. I love those hockey moms, you know, they say, what is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick. I was just your average hockey mom and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better."

Presidential candidate John McCain joined Palin onstage at the end of the speech and said some impromptu words himself. "What a beautiful family," he commented on Palin and her husband and five children onstage. Palin's unwed pregnant 17-year-old daughter Bristol stood onstage holding hands with Levi Johnston, the father of her unborn child.

The small town mayor-turned-Governor of Alaska stressed her status as a Washington outsider in her speech: "Well, I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. Now, here's a little news flash for those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion -- I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this great country."

She touched on her family in her speech, noting, "From the inside no family ever seems typical, and that's how it is with us." She mentioned her infant son, Trig, who was born with Down Syndrome, calling him a "perfectly beautiful baby boy." She said, "Children with special needs inspire a very, very special love," and went on to stress that families of children with special needs will "have a friend and advocate in the White House" if she and John McCain get elected.

As she delivered her speech, her daughter Bristol listened from the audience alongside her boyfriend Levi. Bristol sat between Levi and McCain's wife, Cindy, at one point before the speech, and held baby Trig on her lap.

One member of the audience held a "Hockey Moms for McCain" sign.