(AP) Sarah Palin called on fellow Republican governors to keep the new president and his strengthened Democratic majority in check on issues from taxes to health care as she signaled she'll take a leadership role in a party searching for a new standard-bearer.

Addressing the Republican Governors Association meeting Thursday, this year's GOP vice presidential nominee - and an oft-mentioned candidate for 2012 - revisited some aspects of the bitter campaign and talked about the role of the governors in the coming year. After losing the White House and several seats in the Senate and House, the party is engaging in some soul-searching about its direction.

"We are the minority party," Palin said at a session on "Looking Towards the Future: The GOP in Transition." "Let us resolve not to be the negative party."

Palin never mentioned the name of President-elect Barack Obama, but she took a swipe or two at the Democrat. She said with governors, "the buck stops on our desk. ... We are not the many voting yea or nay or present." While an Illinois state lawmaker, Obama often voted "present," a practice the GOP criticized during the campaign.

Palin noted that Congress is led by the likes of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Rep. Barney Frank, and said it was incumbent upon GOP governors to ensure that the federal government doesn't take over the health care system. She said if Obama and the new Congress "err on the side of excess taxes, we have to show them the way."

Facing the prospect of being out of power at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue for the first time since 1992, Republicans are looking to their governors to fill the leadership vacuum. Speculation has centered on the telegenic Palin despite her tumultuous two months on the national political scene. She likely would have competition for a possible 2012 bid from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal - all in attendance at the three-day meeting.

On Wednesday, Barbour told his peers that now isn't the time to think about the next presidential election.

"Anybody here tonight that has thought about the 2012 presidential election needs to keep their eye on the ball," Barbour, a former Republican Party chairman, told a reception for the governors and their supporters. "We don't need to talk about 2012."

In a series of national television interviews, Palin did not rule out seeking the presidency, saying, "It's crazy to close a door before you know what's even open in front of you."

Asked about the 2012 talk at a news conference Thursday morning, Palin said, "I, like all of our governors, we're focused on the future. The future for us is not the 2012 presidential race. It's next year and our next budget, and the next reforms in our states and in 2010 we're going to have 36 governors' positions open across the U.S. That's what we're focused on."

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(CNN) -- Former Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said she is optimistic about Barack Obama's incoming administration and that she prays for the president elect and his family.

Palin drew huge crowds at her campaign stops, garnered intense media interest and brought big ratings to "Saturday Night Live" as comedian Tina Fey impersonated her in several political skits.

The Alaska governor appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Wednesday to discuss the historic campaign, how she thought she affected the Republican ticket, the concession speech she never got to make, her family's coverage in the media and her plans now that the election is over.

Palin emphasized her admiration for the president-elect in the interview. "I'm proud of Barack Obama," she told King. "I pray for him, his family, the new administration. I look forward to the good things that are in store for this nation."

She said that despite characterizing Obama during the campaign as inexperienced and "palling around with terrorists" she had no fears for the United States under his presidency. Watch highlights of Larry King's interview with Palin »

"I don't have fear, I have optimism," Palin said. "Barack Obama is going to surround himself with those who do have executive experience.

"There was nothing mean-spirited -- there was no negative campaigning when I called Barack Obama out on his associations. You know, we're talking specifically, of course, about Bill Ayers -- an unrepentant domestic terrorist, who campaigned to bomb our United States Capitol and our Pentagon.

"I don't think that there is anything wrong with calling someone out on their associations, their record, their plans. I expect to be called out -- and so did John McCain -- on his associations and our record."

Palin said she did not regret her interview with Katie Couric of CBS and wished she had been more available to the media during the campaign.

"I should have done it, yes. And her questions were fair," Palin told King. "Obviously being a bit annoyed with some of the questions, my annoyance shows through."

Palin had some well-publicized fumbles during interviews with Couric in late September leading up to her vice presidential debate.

"Certainly I should have done the interview. And to attribute I think that interview to any kind of negativity in the campaign or a downfall in the campaign, I think it's ridiculous."

Speculation is mounting that Palin could have designs on the Republican presidential nomination in the next race for the White House. Watch if Palin could be the next GOP star? But as the 2012 buzz takes off, a new poll suggests that just less than half of all Americans have a favorable view of Palin.

Forty-nine percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research survey released Wednesday had a favorable opinion of Palin, with 43 percent viewing her unfavorably. Watch whether Palin could be next Republican star »

That is lower than a previous poll, suggesting that favorable opinions of Palin are dropping among Americans.

Asked by CNN's King whether she was ready to run for the presidency, Palin refused to rule out a bid. "I'm not going to close any doors of opportunity that perhaps are open out there in the future. Not having a crystal ball, I do not know what those opportunities will be," she said.

"But at this point, I'm very happy to get to serve my constituents in the great state of Alaska and start contributing our state more to national security and economic prosperity across America."

Palin said she was sad when she heard the result. "You know, sad because I knew had hard that our ticket had worked. Again, I'm convinced today, as much as I was along the campaign trail, that John McCain is a true American hero and he does have solutions that need to be..."

She played down reports of a rift over her concession speech that never was. "I had some very nice words penned ready to deliver it. It was going to just be a sweet shout-out to Sen. McCain and all that he has overcome and the challenges that he has met and the victories within his own life and his character.

"I had good words penned there that I would have loved to have been able to express. But John McCain is a very, very humble man. It was decided that -- at the very last minute that, no, he would do the concession speech solely. That's our right. That's, you know, that's their call. That's the strategists' call and John McCain's."

Palin also talked about how surprised she was that her children became part of the campaign story. "It wasn't naive, not after Barack Obama came out and said that his wife was off limits. Why should my children, then, have been this assumed target? And they were and that was unfair.

"But, yes, I thought it was ridiculous, not so much the reporting on my children, but the lies that were told about my children and about my own record. That -- you know, stupid things, Larry, you know, like who is Trig's real mother?

"And mainstream media wouldn't correct the erroneous assumptions or suggestions in a story like that? That was ridiculous."

King asked Palin about her daughter's pregnancy. "You know, I looked at her and thought -- and I thought, Bristol, honey, you're going to have to grow up really fast. She is a strong and kind-hearted young woman. She's going to make a great mom. She is very strong. She's going to be just fine.

"But Bristol has an opportunity, at this point, also, to reach out to other young American women and let them know that these are absolutely less than ideal circumstances that she or any other unwed teenage mother are in. And it is not something to glamorize."

Defeated Republican running mate Sarah Palin has said that a woman would be good for the party's ticket in 2012.

Attending the Republican Governors Association in Florida, she did not say if that female nominee might be her.

But the Alaska governor told reporters she would be happy to do whatever she was asked to progress the nation.

Mrs Palin, who is scheduled to speak about the Republican Party's future on Thursday, said she stood for everyday hardworking US families.

Correspondents say the mother-of-five could face stiff competition if she wants to become the Republican nominee in 2012.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who both failed in their candidacy this year, along with Florida Governor Charlie Crist and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour may also be candidates.

'Honour to assist'

Mrs Palin, 44, was asked by reporters on Wednesday about speculation that she is the party's future.

She said: "I don't think it's me personally, I think it's what I represent. Everyday hardworking American families - a woman on the ticket perhaps represents that.

"It would be good for the ticket. It would be good for the party. I would be happy to get to do whatever is asked of me to help progress this nation."

Meanwhile, in an interview with NBC on Wednesday, Mrs Palin said she would feel at ease with President-elect Barack Obama in the White House as long as his advisers understood threats against the United States.

"I'm comfortable with Barack Obama as our commander-in-chief, assuming that he has those around him who recognise... that terrorists have not changed their minds," she said.

She has also hinted at a possible run for the top job in 2012 during a flurry of national television interviews this week, telling one network she would "plough through that door" if it was God's will.

She told CNN it would be her "honour to assist and support our new president and the new administration" if asked.

But she said Mr Obama's ties to former militant William Ayers "still concerned" her.

Correspondents say her sudden media blitz is a marked departure from her tightly-controlled interaction with journalists during this autumn's presidential campaign, when she was John McCain's running mate.

Arizona Senator McCain praised Mrs Palin on Tuesday night during his first post-election interview, saying she inspired people and "would play a big role in the future of this country".

The former beauty queen, who was relatively unknown outside Alaska before Mr McCain picked her as his number two in August, energised crowds on the campaign trail.

But she also drew criticism from across the political spectrum that she lacked experience.

By Julie Bosman

In her first national television interview since the election, Gov. Sarah Palin delivered a lengthy post-mortem of the presidential campaign, criticizing the media, her campaign handlers and the aides who anonymously leaked damaging characterizations about her to the press.

“I believed in going off script once in a while in some of the rallies in order to really reiterate, perhaps, something that I believed about John McCain,” Ms. Palin said. “Maybe it wasn’t written in the script, but so what? Geez, if this is all going to be so scripted and kind of like a movie screen and we have to follow verbatim everything that somebody writes for you, I don’t want any part of that. That’s not who I am and that’s not who John McCain is either.”

Ms. Palin granted the hourlong interview, a one-on-one talk conducted in her home in Wasilla, Alaska, and her office in Anchorage, to Greta Van Susteren of Fox News. The second part of the interview will air on Tuesday.

The show kicked off a week of high-profile national interviews for Ms. Palin, on the scale of the interviews that she famously flubbed in the first weeks after being chosen as Mr. McCain’s running mate. On Tuesday morning, she will face Matt Lauer on the NBC “Today” show, and on Wednesday, she will appear on “The Situation Room” on CNN.

Speaking with Ms. Van Susteren, Ms. Palin struck a more relaxed, low-key note than previous television interviews with Katie Couric of CBS News and Charlie Gibson of ABC News.

Of course, Ms. Van Susteren kept it light. She avoided questions on policy in favor of open-ended conversation about life on the campaign trail and the difficulty of national media attention.

Ms. Van Susteren spent the first eight minutes of the interview asking about the hefty clothes expenditures, and on the anonymous accusation that Ms. Palin thought Africa was a country, not a continent. (The charge was first leveled on Fox News.)

In response, Ms. Palin said, “We discussed what was going on in Africa. And never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or is it a continent.”

Seated behind her large desk in the governor’s office, Ms. Palin did not wear the expensive clothes the Republican National Committee bought for her on the campaign trial. Instead, she wore the boxy pink jacket that she wore on the campaign trail in Florida, and proudly told a crowd that she had bought at her “favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska.”

Ms. Palin directed most of her media criticism at liberal bloggers, whom she twice called, “those bloggers in their parents’ basement just talkin’ garbage.”

But she had a kind word for President-elect Barack Obama, who she said called her during the campaign to wish her luck.

“He was cool,” Ms. Palin said, with almost a giggle. “He said, ‘good luck, but not that much luck.’”

On the question of whether Ms. Palin will run in 2012, she answered, “This is what I always do. I’m like, O.K., God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is. Even if it’s cracked up a little bit, maybe I’ll plow right on through that and maybe prematurely plow through it, but don’t let me miss an open door. And if there is an open door in ‘12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.”

At the Republican Governors’ Association conference in Miami on Thursday, Ms. Palin will appear at a news conference and later at a panel titled, “Looking Toward the Future.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin suggested in an interview broadcast on Monday that she might run for higher office in 2012 if the right opportunity presents itself.

Even before the Republican loss in last Tuesday's election in which Palin was the running mate of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, there was talk of the 44-year-old first-term Alaska governor running for president in 2012.

"Show me where the open door is. Even if it's cracked up a little bit, maybe I'll plow right on through that and maybe prematurely plow through it, but don't let me miss an open door," Palin said in an interview on Fox News' "On The Record" program. She did not specify which office she might be interested in seeking.

Palin, whose term as governor ends in two years, said she could not predict the future. But she said it would be "very exciting" to have an opportunity to serve in a greater capacity.

"If there is an open door in '12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door," Palin said.

As McCain's surprise pick in a hard-fought campaign against Democrat Barack Obama, Palin attracted controversy but also a strong following in the Republican Party's conservative base.

(Writing by JoAnne Allen; Editing by Peter Cooney)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Defeated Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin said she hopes God will "show her the way" before she decides on any future bid for the White House.

The Alaska governor declined to say whether she was planning to run for the US presidency in four years, stating in an exclusive interview Monday with the Fox News Channel that 2012 remained too far off.

"I can't predict what's going to happen a day from now, much less four years from now," Palin said in the interview.

However the devoutly religious 44-year-old mother-of-five said that if God wanted her to run for the highest office, she hoped to be shown the way.

"You know, I have -- faith is a very big part of my life. And putting my life in my creator's hands -- this is what I always do," said Palin, who served as running mate to Senator John McCain.

"I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is," she added.

"Even if it's cracked up a little bit, maybe I'll plow right on through that and maybe prematurely plow through it, but don't let me miss an open door.

"And if there is an open door in '12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door."

Palin's faith was scrutinized during the election campaign after an Internet video surfaced showing her being blessed by a Kenyan witch-hunter in a 2005 service at a Pentecostal church in Alaska.

In a separate interview with the Anchorage Daily News she blamed President George W. Bush's administration for the defeat of the McCain-Palin ticket in last week's election.

"I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a 10 trillion dollar debt in a Republican administration?" Palin told the paper.

"So people desiring change I think went as far from the administration that is presently seated as they could.

"It's amazing that we did as well as we did."

In Monday's wide-ranging interview with Fox News, Palin also appeared to admit for the first time allegations made by anonymous aides to running mate John McCain that she had "gone rogue" during the election campaign.

In the final weeks of the election, reports of tensions between Palin and McCain's advisers emerged, with unidentified sources alleging she had routinely disregarded their advice and made unscripted remarks.

"But being quite independent, just like John McCain is also, yes, maybe there is some characterizing of me going rogue when once in a while I would say something that -- hey, I said it from the heart," Palin said.

"I believed in going off script once in a while in some of the rallies in order to really reiterate, perhaps, something that I believed about John McCain."

"Maybe it wasn't written in the script, but so what? Geez, if this is all going to be so scripted and kind of like a movie screen and we have to follow verbatim everything that somebody writes for you, I don't want any part of that. That's not who I am and that's not who John McCain is either."

Palin denied however that any of her comments had hurt McCain's campaign.

Meanwhile Palin also dismissed reports following last week's election suggesting she was unaware Africa was a continent, not a country, insisting the question had never arisen during discussions about the region.

"We discussed what was going on in Africa. And never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or is it a continent," Palin said.

"I just don't know about this issue. So I don't know how they took our one discussion on Africa and turned that into what they turned it into."

And Palin denied she ever asked for her much-publicized 150,000-dollar wardrobe during the campaign, saying it was purchased for her by the Republican party and that many of the clothes for her and her family were never worn.

"I did not order the clothes. Did not ask for the clothes," said Palin, saying she "would have been happy to wear my own clothes."

Given the serious issues facing the country, "that turned into a kind of odd campaign issue," she said.

WASILLA, Alaska – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she wouldn't hesitate to run for the presidency in four years if it's God's will, even though she never thought Campaign 2008 would be "as brutal a ride as it turned out to be."

In a series of interviews in the wake of last Tuesday's elections, Palin said she had no problem with Republican presidential nominee John McCain, but that she resents rumors she said were spread about her and her family by the Arizona Republican's aides. She emphatically denied that she was a drag on the GOP ticket.

"I think the economic collapse had a heckuva lot more to do with the campaign's collapse than me personally," the governor said in an interview broadcast Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show.

Palin also said "There were a lot of times I wanted to shout out, 'Hey, wait a minute, it's not true.' It's pretty brutal."

Nevertheless, the relatively obscure governor of Alaska, whose selection for the ticket by McCain last August brought excitement — and controversy — to the 2008 campaign, said she would be eager to do it all again under the right circumstances.

"I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door," Palin said in an interview with Fox News on Monday. "And if there is an open door in '12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door."

In the wide-ranging interview, Palin said she neither wanted nor asked for the $150,000-plus wardrobe the Republican Party bankrolled, and thought the issue was an odd one at the end of the campaign, considering "what is going on in the world today."

"I did not order the clothes. Did not ask for the clothes," Palin said. "I would have been happy to have worn my own clothes from Day One. But that is kind of an odd issue, an odd campaign issue as things were wrapping up there as to who ordered what and who demanded what."

"It's amazing that we did as well as we did," the governor said of the election in a separate interview with the Anchorage Daily News.

"I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration? How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration? If we're talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented and that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing," Palin said in a story published Sunday.

Palin has scheduled a series of national interviews this week with Fox, NBC's "Today" show and CNN. She also plans to attend the Republican Governors Association conference in Florida this week.

Palin has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2012. She also could seek re-election in 2010 or challenge Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Still uncertain is the fate of Sen. Ted Stevens, who is leading in his bid for another term but could be ousted by the Senate for his conviction on seven felony counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts, mostly renovations on his home. If Stevens loses his seat, Palin could run for it in a special election.

Palin and McCain's campaign faced a storm of criticism over the tens of thousands of dollars spent at such high-end stores as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus to dress the nominee. Republican National Committee lawyers are still trying to determine exactly what clothing was bought for Palin, what was returned and what has become of the rest.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin pushed back against the growing number of negative leaks coming from John McCain’s former campaign staffers Tuesday, calling those who have spoken on condition of anonymity “cowards.”

”Unless they're going to put their name and face to a false allegation like that, any allegation, then they're cowards,” Palin said in an interview on NBC’s “Today Show.”

The Alaska governor defended herself from details that have emerged regarding the Republican National Committee’s purchase of $150,000 worth of clothes for her and her family. In one report, a leaker characterized Palin and her family as “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast.” Another suggested that she ordered McCain staffers to buy her clothing on their own credit cards.


“I did not order up these clothes,” Palin said in her defense. “I'm flabbergasted that anybody would say that I spent any money on clothes for me or my family.”

“It's been reported that, you know, I insisted on going to Neiman Marcus and to Saks,” Palin continued, “I've never been in these stores.”

Palin insisted that reports claiming the RNC has dispatched a lawyer to Alaska to retrieve clothing still in her possession are untrue.

“That's absolutely false, unless they're doing that without telling me,” she said. “We don't have any of the campaign's clothes in our possession. And it was never anybody's intention to keep these borrowed clothes from the RNC.”

“Over the past couple days,” she added, “we put it all in boxes, put it in the FedEx plane and sent it back to the headquarters.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin denounced anonymous criticisms leveled at her by former John McCain aides as lies, including allegations that Republican lawyers were traveling to Alaska to reclaim her high-priced wardrobe and that she didn't know Africa was a continent.

"Those accounts are not true," the former Republican vice presidential candidate said in her first public comments on the matter since the election Tuesday.

Palin returned Friday to her Anchorage governor's office and said she had no immediate plans to build on her newfound national name-recognition and popularity with the Republican base for a possible 2012 presidential run.

Instead, Palin said, she wanted only to get back to the governor's desk to advance a proposed pipeline tapping Alaska's vast North Slope natural gas reserves and to prepare Alaska's proposed 2010 budget.

As for the vice presidential campaign, Palin denounced criticism from unidentified McCain campaign aides as "cowardly." She said she found it frustrating trying to respond to false allegations when she didn't know who was making them.

"It's ridiculous," she told reporters. "You guys report based on anonymous sources, so it's hard to have a defense."

One report said she and her family went on a shopping spree, spending more than the $150,000 in clothing that the Republican National Committee had earlier reported.

"The RNC purchased clothes," Palin said.

"Those are the RNC's clothes. They're not my clothes. I never forced anybody to buy anything. I never asked for anything more than maybe a Diet Dr Pepper once in a while."

The RNC will inventory clothing it purchased for her to account for dollars spent, she said. She scoffed at reports that the RNC was sending lawyers to take back clothes from her home.

"It's not happening. Nobody's told me that they're coming to my house to look through closets, to look through anything. The belly of the plane that had clothes in it, and those clothes being packed up and sent back by staffers, perhaps that's what they're talking about, but these aren't attorneys."

She said she wasn't angry at the continued coverage of her clothing, but mostly disappointed.

"This is Barack Obama's time right now, and this is an historic moment in our nation and this can be a shining moment for America and our history, and look what we're talking about. Again, we're talking about my shoes and belts and skirts. It's ridiculous."

She also denied a report that she didn't know Africa was a continent, not a country, and that she didn't know the members of the North American Free Trade Agreement — the United States, Canada and Mexico. She remembered discussing both Africa and Obama's stance on NAFTA with people preparing her for her debate, she said. Anything reported as a gaffe was taken out of context, she said.

"That's cruel. It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news. It's not fair and it's not right."

Asked if she felt muzzled by her limited time with reporters during the campaign, Palin said the media is a cornerstone of democracy and an important part of the checks and balances on government.

"Heaven forbid that a candidate or an elected official shy way from speaking to the media," she said. "So it was a little bit of a frustration that I didn't get to call more of those shots, and I guess that was sort of the 'rogue' criticism was, 'She wants to talk to more of the media' than perhaps some in the campaign wanted me to."

Palin backed off from calling for the resignation of fellow Alaskan Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history. Stevens leads Democrat Mark Begich by about 3,500 votes with more than 50,000 to be counted.

A Washington jury convicted Stevens on Oct. 27 of seven felony counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts, mostly renovations on his home. Stevens is appealing the verdict.

"The Alaska voters have spoken and me not being a dictator won't be telling anyone what to do," she said.

Fellow senators have indicated they could boot Stevens.

"That's their baby," Palin said. "They'll have to figure out what to do there."

Palin said she was not interested in running for the job if it comes open.

"Not planning on that. Nope," she said.