US Election: Palin's Place in Republican Party Uncertain After Defeat

Sarah Palin barely waited for the dust to settle on the wreckage of the Republican party before offering herself as its savior today.

But while Palin's sights seem fixed on 2012 after the meteoric rise and fall of her 68 days on the national stage, it is far from clear her fellow Republicans will welcome the return of the woman many blame for John McCain's defeat and their party's disarray.

By the time McCain steeled himself to concede to Barack Obama at his election night party in Arizona, Palin was practically persona non grata in the Republican presidential campaign. She was given no chance to speak, relegated to standing tearfully by McCain's side while he owned the Republican defeat.

Palin soon reached out for the attention she felt she deserved in a cell phone call to a crowd of supporters in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.

To great cheers, she promised: she would return. "I am neither bitter nor vanquished, but very confident in the knowledge that there will be another day."

Not, however, if her enemies inside Camp McCain can help it.

Palin's biggest challenge may well be rebuilding the image of herself as a credible and competent leader that was severely damaged by her overnight celebrity - not to mention the parodies by comedian Tina Fey.

As of this morning, a majority of Americans thought she was unfit for the White House.

In the waning days of the election, as it became clear that McCain's pick of Palin had cost him votes, the governor of Alaska was the repository of aides' assembled frustrations with the course of the campaign. A steady flow of leaks described her as a power-mad diva who was forever threatening to "go rogue", and ditch the talking points supplied her by campaign staff.

Then there was the not-so-small matter of wardrobe. The self-described down-home hockey mom turned governor had expensive tastes once released from the Great White North onto the shopping malls of mainland America, it turned out.

First came revelations campaign aides spent $150,00 to clothe, shod and groom Palin as well as her entire family for their prime time debut on the campaign trail.

A Newsweek report today made Palin seem even greedier, quoting low level campaign staff complaining that she had made them finance her shopping sprees on their personal credit cards.

The controversies may well force Palin into an extended period of exile in Alaska.

Then again, things might not be so good for Palin on the home front. Though Palin entered the election campaign with historic approval ratings after barely two years as Alaska's governor, she has suffered under the high beam exposure on the national stage.

An aggressive national press dug into her governing style, revealing a highly personalized approach that may jar ordinary Alaskans. Palin could also face a backlash against her practice of billing the state government for her children's travel.

Palin, who had sold herself at home as a pragmatic reformer, was also revealed as an ideologue at the right of the Republican party. That could set her up for bitter partisan battles when she returns home to fill out the remainder of her term.

Palin also faces continued rumbles about Troopergate, the inquiry into whether she improperly sacked the head of police in her state after he refused to sack her estranged brother-in-law.

There was good news for Palin this week when a personnel board investigation cleared the governor of wrongdoing, but questions remained about conflicting testimony between Palin and the police chief, Walter Monegan.

There was also speculation today about payback against Palin from a Democratic administration in Washington. "I hope the new president has a magnanimous soul," Hollis French, the powerful Democrat who is one of Palin's biggest rivals in Alaska, told the Anchorage Daily News.