Posted Friday, September 5, 2008 --- 4:10pm

Cedarburg, WI: The first stop for Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin after officially accepting their party's nomination for president Thursday night in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In 2004, George Bush beat John McCain by 17,000 votes in Ozaukee County. McCain and Palin hope to do better than that by appealing directly to the Wisconsin voters.

Governor Palin took the mic first and used her small town experience as a mayor to connect to all the small towns in Wisconsin.

"These are the people who do some of the hardest work in America. They grow our food, they run our factories and they fight our wars," explained Palin. "And they love our country in good times and in bad. And they are always proud to be an American."

She then appealed to the safety of Wisconsin by detailing how Senator John McCain was on the right side of history in fighting for the surge in Iraq, while their competition opposed it.

Added Palin, "If the United States military would have suffered defeat at the hand of Al Qaeda in Iraq our nation would be less safe today and millions of innocent people would have been left to a violent fate."

After that she introduced Senator John McCain who wasted no time getting to the issues that Wisconsinites care about, like wasteful government spending.

"The first earmark pork-barrel bill that comes across my desk I will veto it," stated McCain. "You will know their names, we will make them famous and we will stop this corruption."

McCain also talked energy. Saying that he will drill for more oil and make the country energy independent.

"We will build more nuclear power plants, we will develop clean coal technology, we'll increase the use of wind, tide, solar and natural gas, we will make everything happen," McCain said with emphasis.

The two spoke for about a half hour, then shook hands and met people for about another 30 minutes. From here McCain and Palin move on to other swing states important in the November 4th election.