MINNEAPOLIS — It was Sarah Palin Day in the Twin Cities Wednesday.

“I was so thrilled by her selection,” said Hal Daub, chairman of John McCain’s Nebraska presidential campaign.

“I had been walking around with my fingers crossed. Her choice united the party. It brings the conservatives home.”

It isn’t just about having a woman on the ticket, two female Nebraska delegates said.

Beth Kramer of Omaha said she was “secondarily excited” by the fact that Palin is a woman, but “more excited to have someone so fiscally conservative.”

Darlene Starman of Lincoln said she’s pleased with Palin, but not just because she’s a woman.

“I don’t vote for candidates because of their gender,” she said.

However, for McCain to pick a conservative running mate who also is a woman, was “a brilliant stroke of genius,” Starman said.

Republican State Chairman Mark Quandahl of Omaha said he’ll make sure the national convention knows that Nebraska was “the first state to elect a Republican woman governor” when he delivers 31 of the state’s 33 votes to McCain during Wednesday night’s roll call vote.

Kay Orr was elected governor in 1986 in an unprecedented contest between two women. Former Lincoln Mayor Helen Boosalis was the Democratic nominee.

Two of Nebraska’s delegates were prepared to hand their convention votes to Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Rep. Adrian Smith, the only member of Nebraska’s congressional delegation who is attending the convention, said Palin “brings a new dynamic” to the campaign.

“She can identify with common, everyday Americans,” he said.

Wednesday’s enthusiastic show of support for Palin included some tough talk from 2000 presidential candidate Gary Bauer at the Nebraska delegation’s breakfast caucus.

“The last 48 hours (have taken) my breath away,” the evangelical Christian conservative told Nebraskans at their downtown Minneapolis headquarters hotel.

“Senator (Barack) Obama’s left-wing allies are engaged in a degree of hatred and bile and personal destruction” reminiscent of the attack on former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, he declared.

Critics are using the pregnancy of Palin’s unmarried teen daughter as “a club to attack her,” Bauer said.

“By the way,” he added, “Barrack Obama was born out of wedlock (before) his mother and father were married.”

Former Texas Rep. Henry Bonilla told the Nebraskans that Palin is “going to blow into (Washington) with new ideas (despite) a detailed smear campaign against her.”

Bonilla fired some shots of his own, arguing that Obama would take “a hard turn to the left (because he) wants us to become a France, Germany or Belgium.”

Daub, former Omaha mayor and former 2nd District congressman, said “the request is in” to garner a Palin appearance in Nebraska during the campaign.

“I know conservative Republicans had some concerns about McCain,” he said.

“And I kept reminding them they had the same concerns about George W. Bush. But those disappeared when Bush picked Dick Cheney eight years ago.”

Daub gives McCain high grades for “his first executive decision” as the presidential nominee.

Palin has had executive experience in public life for 13 years, he said, and brings demonstrated conservative credentials to the race.

“And she happens to be a woman,” he said. “He picked well. I think it’s terrific and quite historic.

“Republicans are quite comfortable with the ticket now,” Daub said. “And it has gotten the whole country abuzz.”

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.