McCain and Palin Hit the Campaign Trail for Georgia's Senator Chambliss

John McCain and Sarah Palin will return to the campaign trail tomorrow just more than a week after their crushing election defeat, with the Republican presidential candidate making his first public appearance in a close-fought Senate battle and the vice-presidential candidate positioning herself for a 2012 White House run.

McCain, who spoke about the defeat in his first interview since the election, is to campaign this afternoon in Atlanta, Georgia, on behalf of a Republican senator, Saxby Chambliss, who is engaged in a battle to retain his seat. The result was so tight a run-off election is scheduled for December 2.

Palin will be in Miami tomorrow morning to use a high-profile slot at the Republican governors' conference as a platform to stake a claim to be the party's next presidential candidate.

McCain, on the Jay Leno show last night, the program on which he announced his presidential bid in February last year, confirmed he would not stand again in 2012 and that he will pick up his life as senator for Arizona.

He talked about the loneliness of the defeated candidate and how on the day after election the federal government's security team that had been with him 24 hours a day during the campaign suddenly departed. He and wife Cindy found themselves alone, heading out into the mountains for a coffee near their home in Sedona, Arizona.

Leno, joking about the number of homes McCain has, asked if that would be home number 12. McCain shot back: "You know what? That's ... let's see. 27."

Asked how he had been since the election, McCain resorted to a joke he has been using for the last eight years since losing the Republican nomination battle to George Bush. "Well, I've been sleeping like a baby. Sleep two hours, wake up and cry. Sleep two hours, wake up and cry."

He said he had been conscious throughout the campaign he had been fighting against a headwind and that staff had tried to keep the poor poll figures from him. Asked why he had hidden the funny, likable part of his personality during the campaign, McCain said times were tough: "I don't frankly think that a lot of people wanted a stand-up comic."

He was gracious, as he had been in his concession speech, about Barack Obama. "The one thing I think Americans don't want is a sore loser," he said.

McCain has been criticized for his failure to stamp out criticism from anonymous members of his campaign team blaming Palin for his defeat. He praised her and predicted she would be among the next generation of Republican leaders. He also named Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, and Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, both of whom are attending the Miami conference.

Another contender is Charlie Crist, the governor of Florida, who at one time was close to McCain but the relationship cooled after McCain overlooked him for the vice-presidential slot.

Palin, who was instructed by McCain's team during the campaign to largely stay away from the press, is to hold a press conference in Miami as well as give an interview to CNN, the latest in a series of television appearances this week.