"Isn't She Lovely?"

A handful of Sarah Palin detractors didn't see her that way Saturday morning.

But legions of her fans did.

They cheered loudly when the Republican vice presidential candidate took center stage in Clipper Magazine Stadium, Stevie Wonder's 1976 track playing in the background.

"She's a sweetheart" and a family woman, said Charlie Faltermayer, of Quarryville, shortly before Palin entered the Lancaster Barnstormers field carrying her son, Trig, and wearing a tailored, cream-colored jacket, black skirt and knee-high black boots.

"I know when she gets to the White House she'll keep John McCain in check," Faltermayer said. "That little sweetheart will go all the way."

He was one of about 8,000 supporters who turned out to give Palin a warm welcome. Advance ticket holders were filing into the stadium two hours before Gov. Palin's 10:30 a.m. appearance.

Many sported red and blue pompoms and signs that said things like "Sarah. Our Pal In Washington."

Their pins proclaimed lines like "Read My Lipstick."

They painted mustard on their hotdogs and bought "Joe the Plumber" T-shirts and other regalia hawked by concessionaires. They took their seats, fortified against the sharp breeze by stocking caps, windbreakers and hooded sweatshirts.

They rose during "The Star-Spangled Banner" and saluted a large American flag projected on a digital screen.

Out in the infield, Palin turned sunward and spoke animatedly to a packed stadium. Rays glinted from her earrings and glasses.

It was the third time the McCain campaign has hit town this election season and Palin's second visit to Lancaster.

Frank McKamey said he was riveted when the Alaskan governor first burst upon the nation's TV screens in August.

"I was blown away," said the Harrisburg man, but not to the point that he embraced Palin at face value.

He fired up the computer and researched her record and her stand on the issues, he said. In his view, her conservative values added up.

"I feel very comfortable with her in that [vice-presidential] role," added McKamey, one of several ralliers who expressed disdain for Washington insiders.

"She's a typical woman. She's like any one of my three sisters. Feisty ... I like the freshness. Her pick really revitalized [McCain's] campaign because it was floundering at that point."

Eugene Frey said he put off trimming the shrubbery at his home in Lancaster to welcome Palin.

"I've always been a supporter of McCain," Frey said. "The thing I like best about him is that he will buck anyone, even his own party."

Palin sweetens that pot, added Frey, who was attending the rally with his son, Derek Frey, also of Lancaster.

"You don't have to wonder who she is," said the elder Frey, who called Palin personable and real.

About 25 protesters outside disagreed.

"She has no concept of reality," said Manor Township resident John Wallace, who was standing across North Prince Street from the stadium.

McCain and Palin have the same neoconservative advisers as President George W. Bush, put in John Devlin of Conestoga, who was holding a sign that said "Truth to Republicans is like sunlight to a vampire."

"We're a response to willful ignorance," Devlin said. "That's why we're here."

In the wake of previous rallies this fall in which Palin and her supporters were accused of racial insinuations against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, protesters called Saturday's event comparatively tame.

"A little jawing back and forth," Wallace said.

But friction was not entirely absent, according to Obama supporters.

Sherry Wolfe, Lebanon, reported that a man walking outside the stadium "mooned" her.

Nicole Peace said she walked to the protest from her Lancaster home only to have a passing woman brand her a "traitor."

The uncomfortable scene only increased Lancaster resident Matt Goserud's yearning for more civil, substantive discourse, he said.

"I love talking politics."