Princess Diana, Mother Teresa, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan. That's a lot of icons for a political novice to live up to. But since she unleashed her megawatt smile and acid tongue at the Republican convention last week, Sarah Palin has become the very thing for which she and the Republican party heaped scorn on Barack Obama; a bona fide, made for tv, political celebrity. A Fox News wet dream.

And if Sarah Palin's catapult to the top of politics was a baptism of fire, it was nothing compared to her debut as a celebrity. She made it straight onto the cover of the celebrity mag US Weekly. "Babies, Lies and Scandal" the headline declared.

From her first nanosecond in the spotlight, Sarah Palin has trumpeted her toughness. This is the gun-totin', moose huntin', self-described pit-bull with lipstick. The hockey mom who, three days after giving birth to a son with Downs Syndrome, was back behind the governor's desk. She went about the business of running America's most subsidised state while her baby son slept in his cradle, guarded by the pelt of a giant grizzly bear – head still attached – that is draped across her sofa. No doubt about it, Sarah Palin is tough as steel.

And yet, when she first stepped onstage with John McCain at that rally in Dayton, the public saw a glimpse of the other Sarah Palin. As she clapped her hands excitedly and gushed about her running mate, you expected that any moment, someone would drape a sash across her shoulder and plant a tiara on her head.

And therein lies the secret of Sarah Palin's appeal and her fascination for the media. All those contradictions. The devoted mom for whom the Blackberry comes before the breast pump. The picture perfect all American family – with the pregnant teenage daughter. The passionate outdoors woman – with a well-documented contempt for her environment. The self-proclaimed reformer – with a penchant for old- style politicking. The small town gal – accused of big-time abuses of power.

Palin's back story is well known – it's the stuff of made-for-tv movies. The story of a girl from a small-town, blue-collar family, who won a local beauty contest and married her high school sweetheart. This is the universal script of small-town America. Then the PTA mom becomes the mayor of her small town and from there it is but a short hop to the governor's office and from there an even shorter, albeit more shocking one, to the Republican ticket in the 2008 presidential election.

Telegenic

Her rise has been so meteoric, so unexpected and so telegenic, it's
little wonder that her story has gripped the US imagination in a way that no other politician has since… Barack Obama.

"Rarely have I seen this kind of phenomenon," said Ray Shattuck, an Alaska Republican who witnessed her transition from the governor's office in Juneau to her being watched by 37 million American viewers. "It's almost like Lady Di or something."

There are many things about Sarah Palin that are impressive and the Democratic party would do well to take note. It takes a strong, wily and determined woman to be elected governor of Alaska – perhaps the most macho state in the US. All the more so when you are the mother of five children. Palin, who is attractive, articulate and charismatic, had no family connections and no financial cushion to ease her path. Her accounts of taking on special interest groups may be exaggerated in some cases, but still suggest admirable quantities of grit and guts.

There have been glimmers of vindictiveness and a brittleness to which those who have crossed her in Alaska's narrow corridors of power can testify. But she has that elusive likeability factor, an ability to connect, to strike a chord with people she will never meet. Its importance cannot be underestimated in American politics – Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W Bush can testify to that. Her folksy authenticity tempered some of the cheaper shots she uttered. And her sense, that for all her composure and near flawless delivery, she could hardly believe she was the one behind the podium, was refreshing in a world where sincerity or enthusiasm is usually the result of an expertly applied layer of political polish.

But like a David Lynch movie, a picture is emerging from the hinterland that suggests that all is not picture perfect in Sarah Palin's small town world. For starters, there's the troublesome mother-in-law, Faye Palin. When her daughter-in-law was named as McCain's running mate, Ma Palin seemed less than enthused, saying that she was "undecided" who she would vote for. "I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative," she said. With family like this, you don't need enemies. But it turns out the animosity between Palin and her mother-in- law goes back a long way. Back in 2002, when term limits barred Palin from seeking a third term as mayor of Wascilla, her mother-in-law sought election as her successor. Palin publicly endorsed her opponent, Diane Keller, who won.

Family may prove to be Palin's Achilles heel in the coming weeks. Specifically a family feud that has prompted a bipartisan investigation by the Alaska legislature into whether Palin improperly fired the Alaska commissioner for public safety because he would not succumb to pressure to fire Palin's former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, who is em­ployed as an Alaska state trooper.

Wooten, 36, who has been married and divorced five times, was embroiled in an ugly and protracted divorce and custody battle with Palin's sister.

Improper

On Friday evening, the Alaska State Judiciary Committee said it would issue subpoenas in the case of seven witnesses who had been refusing to co-operate with the investigation. Palin insists she was unaware of efforts by her staff members to have Wooten fired, and that her firing of Walt Monaghan, the Public Safety Commissioner, stemmed from a separate issue. But she has hired a private lawyer to represent her in the proceedings, which could lead to her impeachment if she is found to have acted improperly.

Chairman Hollis French has said the committee will conclude its report by 10 October, three weeks before the election. If she is found guilty of any wrongdoing, the result could be toxic for Mc-Cain, given the well documented abuses of power by prominent Republicans in the Bush ad-ministration and the controversy over the illegal firings of US attorneys by the former attorney general, Alberto Gonzales. A cursory reading of the case against Sarah Palin suggests that at a minimum, her actions were overly zealous. She hired a private investigator to follow her brother in law, and, in her crusade to have him fired, made 36 allegations against him, including claims of sloppy police work, heavy drinking on the job and a claim that he used a stun gun on his 10-year-old stepson. Palin also claimed he threatened to kill her father and that he had physically abused her sister, a claim her sister did not corroborate. As a result of Palin's complaints, her brother-in- law was suspended for five days from his job. But Palin wanted him fired, and over the course of the next year, several of her aides made phone calls to Wooten's supervisers, seeking his dismissal. Last July, when she fired Walt Monaghan, he claimed it was because he refused to fire Wooten. Palin claims it was over a budgeting dispute. And on Friday evening, the Public Safety Employees Association filed a complaint about the misuse of confidential information on Wooten's record by Palin's senior aides. The union claims that an aide to Palin – in a phone call seeking Wooten's firing – cited information that could only have been gleaned from a confidential work file.

Estranged

Mike Tibbles, Palin's chief of staff resigned abruptly in May. Tibbles had made several phone calls seeking Wooten's dismissal which Palin also claims were made without her knowledge. A year earlier, Tibbles fired a legislative liaison officer because he dated the estranged wife of a friend of Palin's husband.

Palin's record shows she does not forgive those who cross her, professionally or personally. As mayor of Wascilla she fired but was forced to reinstate the town librarian because she refused to remove books Palin considered 'unsuitable'. She also fired the Wascilla chief of police and caused a local controversy when it emerged that the successor she appointed had been formally reprimanded for sexual harassment.

However, her supporters say her feistiness on behalf of Alaskans has received far less coverage; they cite her standing up to big oil companies, her slapping a corporate tax on oil profits that she has promised will net a $1,200 rebate to each of Alaska's 500,000 citizens. They point to improvements in education but shy away from her support for the teaching of creationism in schools and her insistence that sex education be limited to the teaching of abstinence.

But it is on the environment that she is perhaps most at odds with her running mate. Palin walks a neat line on climate change. She doesn't deny it exists; that would be to deny Alaska a chunk of federal funding to help combat it. However she does deny that humans have any hand, act or part in global warming which allows her to sanction oil and gas exploration in pristine areas. "Her philosophy is cut, kill, dig and drill," says John Rosenberg, director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance.

Palin has incurred the wrath of conservationists by opposing the Bush administration's decision to designate the polar bear an endangered species. The designation, which Palin has appealed, requires her to take prescribed measures to protect its Northeastern habitat, which would limit gas and oil drilling in the region. She is an avid supporter of drilling in ANWR, a position that is popular among Alaskans who have benefited greatly from a local boom triggered by soaring oil prices.

More than these inconsistencies, it is the inconsistencies that run through Palin's narrative like a leitmotif that could prove more troublesome. The explosive scandal that detonates a political career – like John Edwards affair with a campaign videographer – is rarer than headlines make it seem. More often, it is the slow drip of half truths and obfuscations that erode credibility. The holing of a candidate occurs below the waterline more often than above, usually because there is something the public senses but can't quite put its finger on. And there is a sense that Palin is economical with the truth. In retrospect, McCain's advisers concede off the record that their handling of Palin's daughter's pregnancy was a mistake.

Ireland

Palin has being accused of being selective with facts. A recent claim she had visited Ireland was retracted after it transpired that the plane on which she was travelling to Kuwait had stopped to refuel at Shannon. Her claims that she vetoed the controversial building of Alaska's 'bridge to nowhere' are also misleading. Palin claimed she refused federal funds but in fact she kept the funds and used them elsewhere. So too with her claim that she sold the governor's jet on eBay. It was placed on eBay but removed and sold through an aviation broker for a discount price.

So far, the McCain campaign has kept Palin off-limits to reporters who might ask tough questions about her experience, foreign policy knowledge and the investigation into whether she broke state. But as the vice presidential debate looms it is unlikely she will escape further scrutiny. And an announcement by pro-choice groups, NARAL, Emily's List and Planned Parenthood, that they would spend $30m opposing her candidacy will not be good news for a campaign that is seeking to get the woman's vote from Obama.

And she may have a pastor disaster of a different hue looming. Larry Koon, the senior pastor at Palin's church endorses a 'pray away the gay' policy that claims gays can be turned straight by prayer. Until now, Palin has refused to be drawn on whether she believes gays can alter their sexuality.

McCain gets small bounce

The convention may have helped John McCain to ''recoup some of his losses'' in public support, according to Gallup polls.

Its latest tracking poll of the presidential race shows Democratic nominee Barack Obama still leading, 48% to McCain's 44%. That compares with Obama's 49%-42% lead on Friday and an eight points lead he held over the past week.