NOBLESVILLE, Ind. -- Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin told supporters during a rally in Noblesville on Friday that Sen. John McCain was the only man who would fight for them in Washington.

The Alaska governor flew into Muncie and then traveled to the Verizon Wireless Music Center, where she addressed an estimated crowd of 15,000 people.

"Indiana, this election is going to come down to the wire; it's going to be very close," she said. "But here in the home of the Indianapolis 500, you all know something about close races."

Palin, flanked by supporters holding "Read My Lipstick" signs, dove right into her stump speech, telling the crowd that Democrat Sen. Barack Obama hadn't been forthcoming about his ties to the Association of Community Activists for Reform Now, a community activist group that is under investigation for allegations of voter registration fraud in 13 states.

She said that it wasn't mean-spirited to question Obama's links with the ACORN. She told the crowd it would be "a lot of baggage to drag into the Oval Office."

Palin drew boos from the crowd when she mentioned how she was portrayed by the Washington elite and the mainstream media, but the crowd roared when she referred to Joe the Plumber.

"Somehow he succeeded in getting Barack Obama to finally state his true intentions," Palin told the audience. "He wants the government to take more of your money and decide for government's self how best to redistribute that. And Joe said to him that it sounded kind of like socialism."

Palin told the crowd that a McCain administration would "drill here, drill now," even if Obama views it as raping the environment, and would develop clean-coal technology, whether his vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden, liked it or not.

"As John McCain reminded Sen. Obama the other night in that debate, if he wanted to run against George Bush, he had his chance four years ago," she said. "America knows that John McCain is his own man; he is the maverick."

The Crowd

Supporters started filing into the parking lots at Verizion Wireless as early as 10 a.m. Friday morning.

"I drove from two hours away," Salmone Gasabile said. "I didn't get that close, but just to be here, it's a historic event so I wanted to be here."

Many supporters said that they were excited to finally hear her speak in person, instead of just in television interviews.

"She's normal. I don't hear a lot of political rhetoric,' said Josh Kaufmann. "I mean, certainly there are campaign talking points and what have you, but what I see is someone who really believes what they're saying."

The visit was Palin's first campaign stop in Indiana. McCain last visited Indiana on July 1.