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Sarah Palin refused to rule out a run for the White House in four years’ time as she hit back at extraordinary allegations from aides to John McCain about her “hillbilly” shopping sprees and breathtaking ignorance.

As the controversy over her vice-presidential candidacy intensified following the Republican defeat on Tuesday night, Mrs Palin responded to a barrage of anonymous allegations from the McCain camp, including binge-buying of luxury clothes and a claim that she did not know that Africa was a continent.

Aides to Mr McCain have spent the past 72 hours on an anonymous – and particularly nasty – briefing spree to reporters as they seek to heap blame for his defeat on the Governor of Alaska. Some expressed astonishment that, in one meeting, she seemed unaware that Africa was not a country and was unable to name the three nations – the US, Canada and Mexico – that belong to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

It emerged last month that $150,000 from party funds had been spent on her wardrobe, but Republican officials now claim that the final tab was far higher. They say that Mrs Palin spent “tens of thousands of dollars” on additional clothing, make-up and jewellery, including $40,000 for her husband Todd on silk boxer shorts, spray-on tanning lotion and 13 suitcases.

In a report in Newsweek, aides to Mr McCain said that they were astonished by the size of the expenditure, put on to a Republican charge card, especially after Nicolle Wallace, a senior McCain aide, reportedly told Mrs Palin to buy three outfits for the convention and three for the campaign, limiting her to a budget of $25,000.

One McCain official told the magazine that it was a case of “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast”. Mr McCain had little contact with Mrs Palin in the final days of the campaign, his aides said.

Landing in Anchorage, Alaska, after one of her aides described the allegations as “unfair and sickening”, Mrs Palin was greeted by crowds chanting “2012!”, to which she replied: “We’ll see what happens then.”

Addressing the Africa allegation, she said: “If they’re an unnamed source, that says it all. I won’t comment on anyone’s gossip based on anonymous sources.

“That’s kind of small, of a bitter type of person who anonymously would charge that I didn’t know an answer to a question. So until I know who’s talking about it, I won’t have a comment on a false allegation.”

She has also denied going on shopping sprees. Nicolle Wallace publicly defended Mrs Palin yesterday, taking to a morning television show to call her “the most undiva politician I have ever seen”. Mr McCain’s aides say they were also dismayed that, without informing the campaign hierarchy, Mrs Palin scheduled a call from President Sarkozy of France just before the election. In fact, the call was from Marc-Antoine Audette and his fellow comedian, Sébastien Trudel, who are notorious for prank calls to heads of state.

Mrs Palin appeared to believe that she was talking to Mr Sarkozy and when told that she would make a good president herself some day, she replied: “Maybe in eight years.”

On Wednesday, as the finger-pointing began, Mrs Palin said: “I have absolutely no intention of engaging in any of the negativity because this has been all positive for me.”

She said it was time to savour Barack Obama’s victory and “not let the pettiness, or maybe internal workings of a campaign, erode any of the recognition of this historic moment”.

Meanwhile, interview requests from such talk-show luminaries as Larry King and Oprah Winfrey poured in to Mrs Palin’s office in Alaska.

“The intensity of all the interest is amazing. Everyone wants to talk to her,” said Bill McAllister, her spokesman.

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