Palin details plans for role as Veep

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said she would concentrate on energy, government reform and helping families with special needs children if Republicans win the White House this fall.

Campaigning in Colorado, she said Democratic candidate Barack Obama "wants to raise income taxes and raise payroll taxes and raise investment income taxes and raise business taxes and raise the death tax."

However, independent groups such as the Tax Policy Center concluded that four out of five U.S. households would receive tax cuts under Obama's proposal.

She said, without elaboration, "Our administration will lead efforts to find new treatments and cures" for such diseases as Parkinson's. She did not mention embryonic stem cell research; she opposes federal funding for it. However, McCain's campaign is airing a radio commercial that indicates support for an expansion of the federal involvement in stem cell research.

She said she would play a role in changing the government. "In Alaska, we took the state checkbook and put it online, so everyone can see where their money goes. We're going to bring that kind of openness to Washington," she said.

In fact, there already is a searchable database that allows the public to track federal grants and contracts, and Obama was a principal force behind the 2006 law that created it.

The once independent-minded John McCain has adopted the serve-the-rich policies of President Bush and the divisive tactics of ex-Bush strategist Karl Rove, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said in Michigan.

Biden also criticized the negative tone of McCain's campaign, saying: "John McCain has decided to bet the house on the politics perfected by Karl Rove."

However, Rove has said some of McCain's ads were not truthful and both sides should cool the attacks. And Republican spokesman Chris Taylor said Obama and Biden would damage the economy with higher taxes.

A campaign spokesman said Palin won't speak with an investigator hired by lawmakers to look into the firing of her public safety commissioner.

McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said she will not cooperate as long as the investigation "remains tainted." He said he doesn't know whether Palin's husband would challenge a subpoena issued to compel his cooperation.

The campaign insists the investigation has been hijacked by Democrats. It says it can prove Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired because of insubordination on budget issues -- not because he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.