MINNEAPOLIS — As New York Republicans gather here for daily breakfast meetings connected to their party’s national convention, they have sounded a consistent message: The November election will turn on national security, and Senator McCain is the only candidate who can keep America safe.

When it comes to the first-term Alaska governor chosen as Mr. McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, the question for the state’s security hawks becomes far trickier.

The selection of Mrs. Palin draws nearly universal praise from New York’s top Republicans, including the state party chairman, Joseph Mondello, the state chairman of the McCain campaign, Edward Cox, and a senior House Republican, Rep. Peter King of Long Island.

They champion her record as a reformer. They note with pride that she has more executive experience than Senator Obama. They laud the politics of adding a woman to the ticket — “The Democrats talked about it, and the Republicans did it,” Mr. Mondello said, calling the move “brilliant.”

Yet when asked whether they believe Mrs. Palin is ready to become commander in chief in January should tragedy strike the 72-year-old Mr. McCain, the answers often turn muddled.

“Well, that’s the issue,” Mr. King replied after a long pause. “I, like the American people, are going to be looking at that over the next 10 weeks.”

In a later interview, he said he wanted to know more about Mrs. Palin’s views on “American exceptionalism.” Mr. King, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, had pushed for Senator Lieberman of Connecticut to be Mr. McCain’s running mate.

Mrs. Palin, 44, became governor in 2007 after serving as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a small suburb of Anchorage. As governor, she commands the Alaska National Guard. The campaign says that other than trips to neighboring Canada, she has traveled just once overseas, to visit members of the Guard stationed in Germany and Kuwait.

As surrogates for both campaigns battle over whether Mrs. Palin has more experience than Mr. Obama, New York Republicans have occasionally echoed the talking points once reserved for supporters of the Democratic presidential nominee, a freshman senator of Illinois.

“I’d rather have somebody new and fresh and thinking the way she’s thinking than somebody old and tired who’s been around for ages,” Mr. Mondello said.

But, he was quickly asked, couldn’t that refer to Mr. McCain?

“I don’t think it’s McCain,” he said. “McCain brings to the fore something the others don’t. He’s a true American hero. That has to be recognized.”

Mrs. Palin, he said, is “absolutely ready” for the job.

Running first against Senator Clinton and then Mr. McCain, Mr. Obama emphasized that his “judgment” in opposing the Iraq war was more important than his opponents’ experience on Capitol Hill.

Similarly, Mr. Cox praised Mrs. Palin’s “character” in defending her qualifications as a potential vice president. “You’re looking more for the character of the person, and that’s what Governor Palin has,” he said. He compared her selection to that of his father-in-law, Richard Nixon, in 1952 by General Dwight Eisenhower. Mr. Nixon, he said, had little foreign policy experience at the time, and like Mr. McCain, Eisenhower was much older than his running mate. “A vice president can learn very quickly, as Vice President Nixon did after he was elected,” Mr. Cox said.

Mr. Cox earlier argued in a speech to the New York delegation that national security would be the central issue in the coming election, warning that “if we don’t select the right person as the next president, we’re going to have more tragedies like the one we suffered in New York on 9/11.”

Still, despite the questions about Mrs. Palin’s lack of foreign policy expertise, a key distinction remained, the state party leaders noted. “She’s going to be vice president, working under the president,” Mr. Mondello said, while Mr. Obama is “running for president of the United States. The buck stops with him. It doesn’t stop with her.”