DES MOINES — Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, spoke to a crowd of approximately 10,000 in Des Moines on Saturday. She spoke of two hot-button issues in this election — the economy and energy independence.

“This is about the future of America and our country is facing tough economic times right now. And now, more than ever, we need someone tough as president,” Palin said. “We need a leader with experience and courage and good judgment and truthfulness. We need someone with a bold and real and fair plan to take our country in a new direction — we need John McCain.”

Palin said the housing crisis started because of greed and corruption on Wall Street and she said, if elected, their plan to help the failing economy will be to “clean up the corruption on Wall Street,” so Americans can keep their homes.

Palin said they will confront the $10 trillion federal debt, and balance the federal budget by the end of their first term.

She argued that Sen. Barack Obama’s, D-Ill., plan to “redistribute the wealth” will ultimately punish hard work and create “more big government,” which she said is the problem. She said instead, they will “spread opportunity” and lower income tax by creating a “real” tax cut that allows workers to keep more of their money with each paycheck.

“Instead of taking more and spreading your wealth around, what John and I wanna do is spread opportunity so that people like you and Joe the plumber can create new wealth,” she said.

Also part of their plan to help the economy is to bring tax relief to small businesses and help American businesses stay in America by reducing the American business tax.

“What we’re gonna do is bring tax relief to every American, to every small business. Small businesses, especially here in Iowa, you are the backbone of this state and this country’s economy and we’re gonna let you keep more of what you earn so you can hire more people … that’s how our economy keeps rolling,” she said.

She said currently the government is “misusing the power of tax” and therefore citizens have the mindset that “the government has to take care of us.” She said, if elected, McCain and she will put trust in Americans to take care of their income, instead of the government.

“John McCain and I, we will put our trust in you, not in government, and we will let you keep more of what you earn … we will fight for you,” she said. “We will put our country first. We are going to put the government back on the side of the people.”

Palin also spoke of their plan to make America energy independent by developing new energy sources which will create new jobs in America.

“We have the domestic solutions here and John and I will adopt the all-of-the-above approach to meet America’s great energy challenges.”

She said those solutions will include alternative sources such as wind, geothermal, solar, biomass and ethanol. She also said, “we will drill here and drill now,” both underground and offshore, a declaration met with a booming “drill, baby, drill,” chant from the crowd.

“It is for the sake of our nation’s security, and of course our economic prosperity. We need American energy resources brought to you by American ingenuity and produced by American workers.”

She compared Obama as a politician to McCain as a leader. She said, because of her and McCain’s track records, Americans can count on them to keep their promises. She said her record in Alaska was giving the “state surplus back to the people of Alaska” by eliminating personal property tax, small business inventory tax and the state fuel tax.

“You can count on us to follow through on our promises, Iowa, because we are the only candidates in this race with a track record of reform, and we haven’t just been talking the talk, John and I both have walked the walk.”