Miami — So did you watch Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on FOX News this morning? She said she was going to talk about the Republican agenda for the coming year and for the 2010 elections—but of course, the 2012 elections are on her mind, and on everyone else’s mind.
So how did Palin do at the Republican Governors Association annual meeting? How is the next phase in her career coming along?

Let’s say that her speech today was not her best. She was hesitant and halting, showing only occasional flashes of the charisma she displayed at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, or the swaggering confidence of campaign stump appearances.

She has clearly been rattled by the sniping of ex-staffers, or by losing the election—or both.

Let’s say that her speech today was not her best.

But of course, Palin has lost elections before, and she has plenty demonstrated her own gumption, as well as her own enormous potential for comebacks.

And she laid out six issues and concerns that will be benchmarks for the future—and for her future career:

#1:The role of governors. “We balance our budgets,” she said, “the buck stops with us. We are not voting yea, or nay, or present. There’s no ‘present’ in our offices.” That, of course, was a dig at Barack Obama, who voted a wussy “present” some 130 times in the Illinois legislature.

The states are indeed the “laboratories of democracy”: Most of the great domestic reforms of the last few decades—tax cuts, welfare reform, school choice—came from out beyond the Beltway. And so Palin and her fellow governors have the opportunity to demonstrate “the power and the growth and the jobs that come from lower taxes and more efficient bureaucracy.” Because chances are that there won’t be much of either—lower taxes or more efficient bureaucracy—coming from Washington. Then Palin went further: “If the new Congress and the President err on the side of excess taxes, then it will fall upon us to show them the way.”

Palin herself, of course, has been in the governor’s office for less than two years. So she needs to create her own positive track record in the years to come. That’s her challenge—and her opportunity.

She needs to create her own positive track record in the years to come. That’s her challenge—and her opportunity.

#2: The Wall Street bailout. The bipartisan bailout, passed last month, is a bipartisan disaster. Nobody knows what’s happening, nobody knows where the money is going. And of course, that’s the point: Power never wants accountability, and money never wants transparency. And in the meantime, even as the well-connected in Washington and New York profit, the real economy continues to worsen for ordinary people.

And here Palin has a problem. Making a clever play on words, she mocked the bailout as “opium”—spelled, she quipped,”O-P-M” for “other people’s money.” But the unfortunate fact for her is that she supported the bailout.

One would be inclined to think that her own instincts were anti-bailout, but as John McCain’s running mate, she was stuck with his position—and he voted for the legislation.

So Palin was forced to preface her criticism of the bailout’s implementation by saying that “a lot of us who first supported the $700 billion bailout” now have concerns and criticisms. Fair enough. But the fact remains that she supported it.

An e-mail circulating around cyberspace, cited by Mike Allen in his “Playbook” blog on The Politico, makes this point. It argues that this issue is only beginning to reverberate and it is going to haunt those who supported it:

“Is anybody in D.C. yet realizing that this bailout was a complete elitist scam by both parties and that the middle class is going to be pissed? Obama’s vote for this thing may wind up in four years being the ‘Iraq’ vote of the 2012 election. [Obama] may have to run against an opponent who can claim that he was against the socialization of America way back in 2008.”

If a pro-bailout vote proves to be a political millstone, well, that’s bad news, for Palin, too. But of course, she can still carve out her own post-McCain position on the bailouts to come.

#3: Energy. It now appears that the Democrats think they can get away with shoehorning their hard-green environmental policy into “energy policy.” That’s a bit of trickery that probably won’t fly. John Podesta, co-chair of Obama’s transition team, can set liberal hearts aflutter by suggesting a reversal of Bush administration efforts to expand domestic energy production, but it’s only a matter of time before the “Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.” coalition reasserts itself.

For her part, Palin, who at least had to pretend to agree with McCain on “climate change” during the campaign, was direct in her advocacy of more drilling: “We need to protect our economy and our nation from foreign energy cartels.” She didn’t say it here in Miami, but she surely will in the future: “Drill, baby, drill!”

#4: Health Care. Every state—all those “laboratories of democracy”—is trying something on health care. As Palin said this morning, “serious differences” exist between those politicians, mostly Republicans, who want to “expand choices and increase competition” and those, mostly Democrats, who do not.

But the mega-question, for 2009 and beyond, is health care for non-citizens. Or, if you prefer, “undocumented immigrants.” Or, if you prefer, “illegal aliens.” Candidate Obama promised health care coverage for all who want it. But will President Obama try to offer coverage to all who live here? The distinction between legal and illegal was buried during the campaign—one of John McCain’s biggest mistakes—but the American people know the difference. It’s worth recalling that former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer tried to push a plan for granting driver’s licenses to illegals in 2007, only to be soundly thrashed by fellow Democrats in the deep-blue Empire State. (Obama, by the way, supported Spitzer during that controversy.) So what are the prospects for a health care plan that offers illegals $5,000 or $10,000 a year worth of health care each?

Once again, Palin’s position was merged with McCain’s during the election. So what is it now? We will have to wait and see where she stands on the inevitably twinned issues of health care and illegal immigration.

#5: The role of the individual. Republicans like to say that they fight for personal freedom and entrepreneurship. Well, now they will have a chance to prove it. Palin specifically cited “Joe the Plumber” and “Tito the Builder,” as she criticized tax policies that would “take more of our families’ and small businesses’ hard-earned money.”

With her gift for down-home declaration, Palin is well positioned to highlight real people, and their individual rights and freedoms, against the coming Democratic/Acorn juggernaut of bigger government, higher taxes, and more bureaucracy. Palin gave shout-outs to “prayer warriors,” “blue star moms” (of which she is one), and “special-needs kids” (of which she is the mother of one), all the while promising to lead, using familiar Christian phraseology, “with a servant’s heart.”

#6: Reform. As she said, “losing an election does not mean losing our way,” adding, “in every great reform, there is an element of self-reform.” Palin is wise to champion fiscal transparency—as she said, “put the state checkbook online” so all can see it—but there is more to be done. This is one of Palin’s biggest opportunities: to show what she will do about the scandals in her own state, starting with the seven-times convicted Senator Ted Stevens.

Palin said nothing specific about either foreign policy, or the 2008 campaign. As she said of ‘08 politics, “The past is the past—it’s behind us.”

But of course, America’s history should always help guide our future. Regaining much of her moxie during the course of her speech, she told her fellow Republicans, “Let us reclaim our good name as the Party of spending restraint, and responsibility, and American tradition.”

That was good. And she closed with a jaunty last line: “We’re going to step it up, RGA. God bless ya.” That was absolutely, positively Palin-esque. So look out, 2012, she’s coming atcha!