The GOP is trying to attract undecided female voters and conservatives suspicious of the news media by complaining that press accounts of Palin’s political and family life are sexist.

From the get-go Wednesday, McCain campaign operatives and surrogates criticized the press on national television and at news conferences. GOP delegates also complained about the negative coverage.

“The Republican Party will not stand by while Sarah Palin is subject to sexist attacks,” said Carly Fiorina, a senior adviser to Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential candidate, at a briefing with GOP women complaining about the press coverage.

The party is trying to capitalize on concerns raised by supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), who claimed that press coverage of her presidential run in the Democratic primary was littered with sexist comments. At the same time, Republicans hope to attach blame for the news coverage they dislike to the Democratic Party.

Obama has criticized media reports about Palin’s pregnant 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, saying candidates’ families should be off limits. But Democrats say further exploration of Palin, who was named as McCain’s running mate Aug. 29 and remains an unknown quantity to much of America, is a necessity.

“I think it’s a mistake to go after her personally,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, on MSNBC. “I think, certainly, her record on issues is something that people need to explore.”

In her long-awaited speech Wednesday, Palin said she was not in good standing with the “Washington elite” and media commentators. But she added: “I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion — I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this great country.”

It remains to be seen how effective the strategy will be in swaying undecided voters. But it will unite the base, which has not seen social issues such as gay marriage dominate this election as they have several recent ones.

Throughout the campaign, the McCain team tried to turn negative news coverage into a rallying cry for the base.

In February, his campaign created a fundraising plea out of a negative story in The New York Times about the senator’s ties to a Washington lobbyist. And the campaign attracted widespread attention when it criticized the paper for asking McCain to revise an op-ed before it would consider printing it.

News accounts this week have focused on Palin’s pregnant daughter and questions about an investigation into her firing a state official. Reports have also shown contradictions in her criticism of federal earmarks and about taking on the GOP establishment in Alaska. In addition, falsehoods have been spread on left-wing blogs that claimed, for example, that Palin’s fifth child, who has Down syndrome, is actually her daughter’s. Published reports have suggested that McCain’s vetting of Palin was sloppy and inadequate, and many stories and commentary pieces have raised questions about her limited experience in public office.

To help make its counter-point, the Republican National Committee sent out a mass e-mail highlighting a story picked up on the Drudge Report, saying “US Weekly mag casts its vote early.” It showed a picture of Obama and his wife Michelle on the cover of the magazine with the banner, “Why he loves her.” Below that it showed a front cover with a smiling Palin with a baby in her arms and the headline “Babies, Lies and Scandal.”

The McCain campaign has pushed back hard, saying the press would not give the same treatment to a man.

That tactic, activists suggested Wednesday, is effective. “It’s bias,” said Bruce Thompson, 54, a California delegate and regional administrator for the Small Business Administration, wearing a fisherman’s hat with buttons of McCain and Ronald Reagan. Thompson says he watches only Fox News to get his political news, and complained that newspapers are becoming “more and more liberal.”

Mary Leavitt, 72, owner of a flag shop in Columbus, Ohio, and dressed in a flag-patterned shirt, said Wednesday that the news of Palin’s pregnant daughter is a “family issue and has nothing to do with how good of a vice president she’s going to be.”

“It’s an incredibly sexist attack by the media on her,” said Karen Pausman, 58, a Texas delegate who works for a textile company. “If they keep it up, it’s really going to energize Republican women in Texas, definitely.”