中國網站品牌欄目（頻道）
Conservative Sarah Palin returned to the US political arena on Saturday after several months absence with a feisty speech attacking both the establishment Republican Party and Democratic President Barack Obama and proclaiming "the 2012 elections begin here".
In a move apparently aimed at keeping her name in the running for the Republican nomination in next year's presidential election, Palin addressed several thousand people in Wisconsin, a state bitterly divided by a political fight over union rights.
As snow and sleet fell on Madison's main square, Palin attacked the budget compromise between Republicans and Obama on cuts of around $38 billion instead of $100 billion promised by Republicans in elections last November.
"That is not courage, that is capitulation," she said, adding that a recent bruising battle in Wisconsin over union bargaining rights provided a number of lessons.
"We didn't elect you just to rearrange the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic," she said. "We didn't elect you just to stand back and watch Obama redistribute those deck chairs."
While former governors Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty have announced they hope to be candidates to challenge Obama, Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate, has not said whether she will seek the Republican nomination for president.
Palin has been largely invisible since then and a March 25 Gallup Poll saw her support fall to 12 percent from 16 percent.
Meanwhile Republican Representative Bachmann has been carving out a role as a Tea Party favorite.
Among the crowd in Madison, Sarah Slye, 60, a grandmother of five who held a sign saying "Grandma is a right-wing extremist," said she would vote for Palin for president.
（中國日報網英語點津 Julie 編輯）
About the broadcaster:
Lee Hannon is Chief Editor at China Daily with 15-years experience in print and broadcast journalism. Born in England, Lee has traveled extensively around the world as a journalist including four years as a senior editor in Los Angeles. He now lives in Beijing and is happy to move to China and join the China Daily team.
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