Myers, holding two small American flags, shouted, "Go, Sarah! Yes, Sarah! Go Sarah! Yes, Sarah!" as more than 100 people crowded the Tailgaters sports bar and grill to watch the late afternoon speech.

Myers, 70, said Palin is family, and she takes care of the people of Wasilla like her own.

He said she's hardworking, just like his mother, she's juggling two jobs, and she can take whatever is dished out.

"She's a true blue, dyed-in-the-wool honest person and everyone is scared to death of her," said the resident of nearby Palmer who described himself as a conservative Republican. "Now I've got someone to root for again."

Myers wasn't alone in his unabashed enthusiasm for Palin during her speech.

Minor Smith, 57, a North Slope worker from Wasilla, who was baptized in the same church as Palin and knows her husband, Todd, said he wasn't worried that Sarah Palin would crumble under the pressure. In fact, he said, it's just the type of fight she likes.

"She is perfectly able to defend herself. She's a little tiger," he said of the woman he got to know at church picnics. "She loves this stuff. This is what she lives for."

Palin was born in Idaho, but moved to Wasilla as an infant with her parents, Chuck and Sally Heath.

The giddy crowd flashed their McCain-Palin shirts — what they call "Sarah wear" — and swapped stories about the Palin and Heath families they all had heard a thousand times before.

When Palin took the stage, they leapt to their feet like the hometown team was taking the field for the Super Bowl.

Carol Bearman, 42, said she was visting from the Prince William Sound community of Valdez to go moose hunting. Bearman said Palin was tough, like every Alaska woman.

Bearman noted that many pundits predict that Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden will have no trouble dismantling the green Palin during debates.

"They all say Biden is going to eat her up and spit her out. I think the opposite is going to happen," Bearman said after Palin's speech.

The crowd cheered at just about every sentence during Palin's speech, and frequently jumped to their feet, singing a chorus of "Go girl! and "Yes, Sarah!"

Some of the biggest responses came when Palin introduced her family and when the camera stayed on her parents.

She also drew wild applause when making jabs at presidential candidate Barack Obama and other Democrats and when she defended the people that come from small-town America.

"They love their country in good times and bad," Palin said, prompting Myers to jump to his feet, clapping and yelling, "Yay!" while others cheered wildly.

She also got a loud laugh when making the joke about the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull — lipstick.

Smith — who showed up at the bar to watch a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game — said he wasn't surprised that Palin was the picture of confidence during her first national speech.

"She believes this stuff. It's Sarah being Sarah," he said.

Mike Swanson, 53, and J.P., his 51-year-old wife, both donned "Go Sarah" T-shirts to show their support. J.P. said she remembers teaching 18-year-old Sarah Palin how to do telephone repair work and said she was impressive even then.

However, she said she can't help worrying about her just a little bit, like a mother, she said.

"She'll be all right. We're damn proud of her," she said.

Her husband added it won't be long before the rest of the country gets to know the real Sarah Palin, too.

"I'm sure the rest of the country will be proud of her, too, real quick," he said.

At the end of Palin's speech, the bar crowd jumped to their feet and gave her standing ovation.

"She thumped 'em," Myers said.

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Associated Press writer Matt Volz contributed to this report.