Today's Fix Eric Pianin

ST. PAUL, Minn. Sept. 4 -- In the immediate afterglow of his speech accepting the presidential nomination, John McCain will hit the road with his running mate, Sarah Palin, to try to maximize the political bump they are likely to receive from a harmonious Republican National Convention.

With confidence growing within the campaign that the newly forged ticket will have widespread appeal in key battleground states, McCain and Palin planned to embark on a series of joint appearances, starting in the Midwest.

After heading to Milwaukee for an overnight stop, McCain and Palin were scheduled to attend a "meet-and-greet" in Cedarburg, Wis., before winging off to Detroit for an evening "Road to Victory" rally in suburban Sterling Heights. Michigan is one of several key battleground states in the Rust Belt that McCain forces are vigorously targeting. Then it will be on to Colorado -- another state important in the McCain campaign's overall calculations -- for a rally Saturday morning in Colorado Springs.

McCain's choice of Palin may be controversial and risky in light of her relatively thin political résumé and her inexperience in foreign policy and national security matters. But her feisty speech to the convention Wednesday night, in which she mocked Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and her critics in the media and Washington's political establishment, electrified the crowd and energized a Republican conservative base that until now has had mixed feelings about McCain.

McCain campaign advisers are convinced that Palin will be dynamite on the campaign trail -- both in joint appearances with the senator from Arizona and on her own -- and they are likely to deploy her extensively in Midwestern states including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, where they believe her down-home "hockey mom" style and her husband's membership in the steelworkers union will endear her to wavering voters. "She will be able to relate to people in those places in a fundamental way," explained one aide.