"We can't just ignore... that we just lost a big election - came in second, out of two," Palin said. Throwing to her Alaskan roots, she analogized: "Second position on the dogsled team is where the view never changes, and the view ain't pretty."

With the 2014 midterm election 20 months away, Palin advised, "now is the time to furlough the pollsters ... if we truly know what we believe, we don't need professionals to tell us."

In what seemed to be a deliberate contrast to last cycle's nominee, Mitt Romney, who was surreptitiously videotaped telling a closed-door fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans aren't worth "worrying about" because they consider themselves "victims" and won't vote for him anyway, Palin rallied conservatives: "It's time to stop preaching to the choir, and let's grow."

"We must share our powerful message of freedom and liberty to all citizens, even those who may disagree on some issues," Palin said, "because there is solid, common ground in fighting against government overreach and for independence. And those who may disagree with us on some issues, they're not our enemies. They're our sisters and our brothers; our neighbors and our friends."

"If we truly believe the words of our other founding document, the Declaration of Independence, with its world-changing assertion that, yes, all men are created equal," she continued, "then there are no Hispanic issues or African-American issues or women's issues; there are only American issues."