O'FALLON, Missouri (AFP) — Sarah Palin got comfortable in her new role as a vice presidential candidate Monday as she made the Republican case to stay in power.
She was careful, however, not to press too hard against her Democratic rivals after running mate John McCain promised to set aside partisan politics out of respect for those threatened by Hurricane Gustav.
"One of the goals of reform is to keep the government focused on the things that matter most," Palin said told the crowd of 17,000.
"We want a government that is competent and is dependable and is free of corruption and self-dealing."
But raising taxes and overfunding programs is not the way to make government work, Palin said.
"We don't want bigger government. We want government that does a few big things and it does them right."