Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Michigan gets first look at GOP team

Presidential hopeful McCain, VP nominee Palin get warm welcome from large Metro Detroit crowd.

Mike Wilkinson and Candice Williams / The Detroit News

STERLING HEIGHTS — John McCain and Sarah Palin brought their newly minted Republican presidential ticket to the home of the Reagan Democrats on Friday, drawing a huge crowd eager to hear from the war hero and the hockey mom.

An overflow crowd at the Freedom Hill County Park amphitheater — which brought traffic to a standstill for hours on Metropolitan Parkway — roared with each punch line and cheered with every dig at Democrat Barack Obama.

McCain made no direct reference to the struggling domestic automakers, an industry for which he has previously expressed tough love. But he appeared to look to a future working for Michigan, whose voters both campaigns covet.

“A little straight talk here at the end: I need the state of Michigan to win,” McCain said. “We will disagree from time to time on a specific issue, but I promise you this: I will never let you down and I will always, always put my country first.”

McCain and Palin chose Michigan, a key battleground state, as their second stop following the close of the GOP national convention in St. Paul, Minn. Earlier Friday, the two campaigned in Wisconsin.

A Republican hasn’t carried Michigan since 1988.

Retired DaimlerChrysler engineer Lloyd Callicoat and his wife, Kathleen, said they didn’t mind that McCain didn’t address the auto industry specifically.

“He mentioned it in generalities, with all the trouble the country is having,” said Lloyd Callicoat of Grosse Ile.

Added Kathleen Callicoat: “If you get everything set, everything will fall into place.”

If Friday’s enthusiasm is any indication, McCain scored gold with his pick of Palin — perhaps igniting in the GOP campaign some of the frenzy that has marked many of the Obama rallies. Perhaps not used to the size of the crowd, McCain often began speaking while the crowd was still cheering.

Indeed, the Freedom Hill event was much larger than other McCain events so far in Michigan, and it may have been a direct result of the Alaska governor and mother of five. The crowd was estimated at more than 10,000 — larger than most McCain events that had been, by design, more intimate.

“We are so excited about the Palin and McCain ticket,” said Debbie Krauss of Grosse Ile.

“There’s an excitement that Palin has brought to the ticket. I think she’s genuine.”

(Jim Warner, who was a POW in Vietnam with Sen. John McCain charges up the crowd during a visit from McCain and his vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, Friday at Freedom Hill County Park.)

Her 15-minute speech had people shouting her name, banging on inflated plastic “thunder sticks” and laughing or cheering every line.

Noting that her eldest son, Track, spent much of his senior year attending a high school in Portage, outside Kalamazoo, Palin told the crowd that she owes many thanks to the state — and earned a cheer when she mentioned Track’s love of hockey.

“Michigan, you took care of my boy,” she said. Now, Palin added, he will help take care of them — he will soon be deployed to Iraq with his Army unit.

She also took direct aim at Obama’s comments on Thursday in which he said the surge in Iraq “succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated.” Palin then reminded the crowd that McCain had backed the surge when many opposed it.

“There was one leader in Washington who did predict success,” she said, claiming McCain had “risked his career” in supporting President Bush.

Democrats fired a pre-emptive shot at the McCain-Palin ticket, bemoaning Friday’s news from the Labor Department that 39,000 auto-related jobs were lost in August, one of the largest one-month losses.

“These numbers are unacceptable and are just one more reminder of what is at stake in this election,” Obama said in a statement issued just before McCain and Palin arrived in the state.

He reiterated his support of $50 billion in loan guarantees for domestic automakers to help them “retool their factories to make the next generation in fuel efficient vehicles. McCain initially resisted the idea of loan guarantees, then said he would support them in some form.

Instead of talk in detail about economic problems — McCain did acknowledge the tough times — the Arizona senator talked about his plans for a new energy policy that will include more nuclear power and offshore drilling.

He said he would cut pet project “earmarks” as president and fight to keep taxes low. McCain touted Palin’s own cost-cutting in Alaska.

“If you want real reform, if you want real change, send the ones who’ve actually done it,” McCain said. “Send a team of mavericks who aren’t afraid to go to Washington and break some china.”

While they were in Michigan, the ticket picked up the endorsement of the National Fraternal Order of Police at the Detroit Marriott Hotel at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit.

Fred Austin, 49, an engineer technician from Birmingham, said the rally has him pumped for the election: “I haven’t been this excited about voting for a president.

“Palin makes it exciting. If they get in, they have the possibility of changing things.”

The Sterling Heights rally prompted dozens of protesters to picket outside.

(thanks Steve in NC)