US candidates clash over Palin's politics and experience

The two main candidates for the US presidency locked horns yesterday over the credentials and qualities of Sarah Palin, the little-known governor of Alaska who has been propelled into the centre of the electoral battle with her appointment as John McCain's Republican running mate.

As the race now fans out across America at the end of the two parties' national conventions, attention continues to focus on Palin, who has delighted the Christian right base of the Republican party but provoked criticism of her lack of experience, particularly in foreign affairs.

Interviewed on politics programmes of the US networks yesterday, McCain and his Democratic opponent Barack Obama presented conflicting perspectives on Palin's politics and role in the election.

Obama, appearing on George Stephanopoulos's show on ABC, praised her as a skilled politician but rolled out his camp's new weapon - to depict her as a sort of John McCain-Bush with brass knobs on. Obama said that Palin was "even more aligned with George Bush or Dick Cheney and the politics we've seen over the last eight years than John McCain himself".

Obama derided claims over the weekend by McCain that the governor for Alaska had more foreign affairs experience than he had by dint of the fact that her state lies next to Russia. "I actually knew Alaska is next to Russia - I saw it on the map," Obama quipped.