McCain vows fiscal reform

CEDARBURG, Wis. — John McCain said Friday the sagging economy has brought “tough times all over America” as he made a splashy debut with Sarah Palin in critical Midwestern states as the newly crowned Republican presidential ticket.

A crowd of thousands cheered the Arizona senator and the Alaska governor as they presented themselves as a team of reformers eager to challenge Washington’s political establishment.

“John McCain doesn’t run with the Washington herd,” said Palin, the 44-year-old Alaska governor and surprise pick as McCain’s running mate.

“It’s over. It’s over. It’s over for the special interests,” McCain promised. “We’re going to start working for the people of this country.”

Twelve hours after leaving the Republican convention in Min­n­esota, McCain and Palin were cheered and applauded by a throng of thousands that wound down several streets of Cedarburg, a traditional Republican enclave within Democratic-leaning Wisconsin.

McCain’s campaign put out an ambitious estimate of 12,400 people at the rally. Cedarburg’s population is about 11,000.

“Isn’t this the most marvelous running mate in the history of this nation?” McCain said of Palin, who introduced him as “the only great man in this race, the only man in this election ready to serve as our 44th president.”

Two months before the election, small towns are a key target for McCain as he tries to lure independent and blue-collar voters essential for him to win.

Many people in the audience held digital cameras and video cameras above their heads to get a shot as McCain’s “Straight Talk Express” bus rolled into town. Palin said it was their intention to bring their campaign directly from the convention to “small-town America” like the small town in Alaska where she once was mayor.

The Republican team plans to campaign together in hotly contested states — Wisconsin and Michigan on Friday, Colorado and New Mexico today — and then go their separate ways. Palin is expected to return to Alaska just briefly and then go back to the campaign trail, perhaps Monday.

“Change is coming, change is coming,” McCain promised the audience, borrowing the same theme that Democrat Barack Obama has made the centerpiece of his run for the White House.