democratic nomination before a record crowd of 84,000 in denver. at that moment the mccain campaign was preparing to announce its vice presidential candidate. the pick was a closely guarded secret. even top mccain advisers were left in the dark until the last minute. >> i walked into a hotel room and steve schmidt said to me meet the next vice president of the united states, the governor of the great state of alaska, sarah palin. and i'd never heard of her and i'd never met her, and i shook her hand and she was lovely. and i walked out. and he said what do you think, guys? she seems great. >> palin, the 44-year-old first-term governor, had made a name for herself as a reformer in alaska. she had a better than 60% approval rating as a governor. she had an ability to spark interest. >> john mccain looked at sarah