Palin Shares The Stage With Her GOP Peers

At a meeting with reporters Wednesday night, a couple of governors hedged when asked if Sen. John McCain had done the right thing in picking Palin.

John Huntsman Jr. of Utah said McCain's instincts "have always served him very well" throughout his career.

And Pawlenty, who was one of the finalists for the No. 2 spot on the ticket, said simply that McCain had said he would pick someone ready to be president, "and we're going to have to defer to his judgment and that process."

Still, there is no misapprehension among the governors that far fewer cameras would have been aimed at the podium Thursday if Palin were not onstage.

After a week of television interviews in which she defended herself against anonymous charges from within the McCain campaign that she was ill-prepared and a drag on the ticket, Palin told reporters she had no interest in rehashing the campaign.

Asked why she had held no news conferences during the election season, she responded, "I don't even want to talk about strategy within a campaign that's over."

Later she gave a casual and at times humorous valedictory to her colleagues about the race and their shared future.

She said she had "managed to fill up the time" since she had last met with them.

"I had a baby, I did some traveling, I very briefly expanded my wardrobe, I made a few speeches, I met a few VIPs, including those who really impact society, like Tina Fey," Palin said. "Aside from that, it was the same-ol', same-ol'."

Afterward, Palin told her colleagues the GOP ticket's loss was a "hard and honorable defeat" and she took pride that "tens of millions of Americans shared our convictions."

"But for us, it was not our time, it was not our moment," she said.

She wished President-elect Barack Obama well and called his election "a shining moment in American history."