The most-applauded line of Mike Huckabee’s speech to the Republican National Convention looks like the most inaccurate.

In speaking about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP’s vice presidential nominee, Huckabee said: “She got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.”

Wasilla has a population of about 9,000. Biden received close to 80,000 votes in his presidential bid earlier this year.

Biden is now the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

Arkansas delegates, like other Republicans in the convention hall Wednesday, had only good things to say about Sarah Palin’s vice presidential acceptance speech.

Delegates had been excited all week about John McCain’s surprise choice for a running mate. They said Palin kept impressing with her remarks.

“It was awesome. She hit it out of the park and it’s still going,:” said Robin Lundstrum of Springdale. “She hit all the right notes.”

Lundstrum said she was pleased to hear Palin’s assurance that America would become energy independent during a McCain-Palin administration. She also was satisfied that Palin talked tough on taxes.

“I’m just so pleased, she didn’t talk over all the issues. She just told you what she thought. She doesn’t talk out of both sides of her mouth,” Lundstrum said.

During a week where the McCain-Palin campaign announced that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter was pregnant, Arkansas Delegate Joseph Wood of Fayetteville said he thought it was important Palin didn’t gloss over her family issues.

“She said what she needed to say about the challenges her family has faced and she did a good job,” Wood said. “She didn’t go into all the dirty details.”

Palin, too, struck the right tone on Democratic candidate Barack Obama, Wood said.

“She didn’t go after Obama. She just went after his record,” Wood said.

The threat of Hurricane Gustav prompted Republicans on Sunday to cancel most activities associated with Monday’s first day of the Republican National Convention.

GOP delegates will conduct only official business — establishing a quorum and adopting a party platform, among other parliamentary moves — on Monday. The session is expected to last about 2 hours, instead of the 7 hours that were planned.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney earlier Sunday told the convention they would not be in St. Paul, Minn., so that they could follow Gustav as it rumbled toward the Gulf Coast.

In a statement via video feed to reporters at the convention, presumptive presidential nominee John McCain said his party needed to put the welfare of America ahead of its convention.

“Of course, this is a time where we have to do away with our party politics and do what’s best for America,” McCain said from St. Louis, Mo.

Officials said they would decide “day to day” how to proceed with the rest of the convention. The only other official business that must be completed this week is the formal nomination of McCain for president and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for vice president.

Here’s Mike Huckabee’s response to John McCain’s selection of Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, as his running mate:

“Sarah Palin is a pleasant surprise for those of us who had hoped that Sen. McCain would pick a principled and authentic conservative pro-life leader and Sarah Palin is. As a Governor, she also brings an important balance of understanding of the critical domestic issues that is needed and that the Democrats have ignored in their ticket.

“Gov. Palin is smart, authentic, tough, and a dynamic choice that will remind women that if they are not welcome on the Democrat’s ticket, they have a place with Republicans.”

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, lost his bid for the GOP nomination to the White House this year. He had been considered a contender for McCain’s VP spot.

Multiple news organizations are citing Republican sources that confirm Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska will be named this afternoon as John McCain’s running mate.

The news broke just as a cramped jet filled with weary participants from the Democratic National Convention landed in Minneapolis. Nearby St. Paul, Minn., is the site of the Republican National Convention starting Monday.

Palin took office as Alaska governor in 2006.

It was a surprise pick for McCain. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge were all considered to be on the vice-presidential “short list.”

It’s safe to say Arkansas Republicans don’t know much about their apparent vice presidential nominee from the Land of the Midnight Sun.