CEDARBURG, Wis. -- Sen. John McCain and Sarah Palin on Friday cast the new Republican presidential ticket as a team of determined reformers eager to challenge Washington's political establishment.

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"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 crowd of 1,000 or more who packed the street in front of the ice cream and chocolate store that was the backdrop for their appearance.

"Isn't this the most marvelous running mate in the history of this nation?" McCain asked at a main street rally in Cedarburg, a town of about 11,000. The community, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee in Ozaukee County, is a traditional Republican enclave within Democratic-leaning Wisconsin.

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 on Saturday -- and then go their separate ways. Palin is expected to return to Alaska just briefly and then go back to the campaign trail, perhaps on 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.

McCain's campaign as a political outsider and rebel is complicated by the fact that he has served in the Senate for 22 years and solidly endorsed key elements of President Bush's record, most notably the war in Iraq and hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts. McCain originally opposed the tax cuts but changed his mind as he sought the GOP presidential nomination.

And there are wrinkles to Palin's background that have diverted attention from the themes the GOP ticket is trying to promote: Having served as the mayor of Wasilla, a town of less than 10,000, and then for 18 months as governor, Palin is new on the national stage and reporters are starting to dig into her past.

McCain introduced her to the nation as a "hockey mom" with conservative Christian values and a track record of fighting corruption in her own party in Alaska. But it wasn't long after that a slow but steady stream of background information about her began to emerge.

• She announced that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter, Bristol Palin, is five months pregnant.
• Palin once looked into the possibility of having books banned from her local library.
• Palin was in the audience when a preacher visiting her church blamed terrorism against Jews on their refusal to convert to Christianity.
• She hired a private attorney to defend her against accusations of abuse of power.
• Her husband once belonged to a fringe political group seeking Alaska's secession from the U.S.
• She has acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past.

The McCaign campaign has sought to portray journalists looking into Palin's background as biased and obsessed with trying to tear her down.

"I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone," Palin said at the Republican National Convention earlier in the week. "But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion -- I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country," she said to a loud, standing ovation.