Sarah Palin begins her rise from the failed McCain presidential campaign's ashes Thursday at the Republican Governors Association conference in Miami.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Thursday the Republican Governors Association is committed to returning to the bedrock values of the party after a battering in the Nov. 4 election left Republicans in a weakened state across the nation.
"Let us resolve not to become the negative party, too eager to find fault or unwilling to help in this time of crisis and war," she told the gathering Thursday. "Losing an election does not have to mean losing our way, and for governors, the way forward leads through our own state capitals in reforms we will carry on or begin anew."
Palin, whose vice presidential nomination led to her being cast as one of the GOP's rising stars, told reporters ahead of the group's plenary session that she's not thinking about her personal ambitions but putting the country back on the conservative track.
"As far as we're concerned, the past is the past, it's behind us," she said. "And I, like all of our governors, we're focused on the future. And the future for us is not that 2012 presidential race. It's next year, and our next budgets and the next reforms in our states, and it's 2010 when we'll have 36 governors' positions open across the U.S."
Nonetheless, Palin's role in the coming years helping other Republicans get elected could be the key factor in her ability to stake a claim to the presidential nomination in 2012. Palin is hoping to rise from the ashes of a failed John McCain presidential campaign that ended with her fending off claims she is countrified and bubble-headed.
"I can assure you, she's just getting started," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, introducing her, and telling her to "knock 'em dead" at a press conference before the press conference.
As a history-making figurehead who has held court with foreign heads of state and still has the media clamoring for her time, Palin is poised to cement her role within the party. She told governors that America wants "to be able to trust the federal government again" and much of that will rely on the ability of governors to project authority on the state level and work across partisan lines.
"We are united and we understand what it's going to take to get this economy back on the right track, national security issues, immigration issues, education reform, health care reform, those issues that we deal with every day in our states," she said. "We want to reach out to the new administration and offer our assistance, our support, offer solutions and I think that we'll be sought by the new administration, by Congress, and we're here to help."
Meanwhile, Palin has signaled she might just heed the calls to reach for the mantle of the Republican Party -- and remain in the national spotlight. She said she was disappointed by the election results. "You run to win," she said, adding that her gender is an asset to the party's image.
"In America there will be no ceilings on achievement, glass or otherwise," she told the governors.
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