Palin Shares The Stage With Her GOP Peers

"Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and our country," she said.

While in her television interviews Palin has declined to rule out a presidential run in 2012 -- who knows what doors God might open, she has said -- she and others here said the most immediate political events will be in 2010, with midterm elections and 36 gubernatorial races.

The group was repeatedly reminded that the party suffered a similar loss in 1992, when President Bill Clinton was elected, and that then-Rep. Newt Gingrich and others fashioned a resurgence that gave Republicans control of Congress in 1994.

Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.) told the group that voters have not changed their ideology -- but they have stopped trusting Republicans.

"I believe the truth is, at the federal level, in 2006 and 2008, we did not lose our governing majority, we lost our way," Pence said. "The American people didn't walk away from the Contract with America, they decided we did."

Polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.