After stealing the show at a gathering of Republican governors in Miami yesterday, Sarah Palin ended an extraordinary 72-hour period in which she heaped praise on Barack Obama, accused him of associating with terrorists and hinted at a presidential run in 2012, before quashing such talk.

As rebranding efforts go it was frenetic, confusing, but utterly compelling to watch, as Mrs Palin - to the frustration of her fellow governors - left the rest of them in the shade.

In the 48 hours before she appeared for a bizarre eight-minute press conference on the final day of the Republican Governors Association meeting, Mrs Palin had given television interviews in which she hinted at a White House bid in 2012 - and that God would show her the way. She also defended her previous claims that Mr Obama had “palled around with terrorists”, a reference to his past work with William Ayers, the Vietnam-era domestic bomber.

By yesterday morning, however, a different Mrs Palin appeared. “I wish Barack Obama well as the 44th President of the United States,” she said, after a prolonged standing ovation. “If he governs with the skill and the grace and the greatness of which he is capable, we're going to be just fine.”

Before that speech Mrs Palin had appeared on stage with 13 other male Republican governors, where she had been scheduled to take questions from a throng of journalists. Only four were allowed before she was whisked away. Gone was all talk of a White House run in four years' time.

“I, like all of our governors, we're focused on the future. The future for us is not the 2012 presidential race. It's next year and our next budget,” she said. She belittled the media for its “idle speculation” about her White House ambitions. The woman who on the campaign trail had told booing crowds that Mr Obama “doesn't view America the way we view America” went on to decry partisanship. “We want to reach out to the new administration and offer our assistance, our support; offer solutions,” she said.

The governors' meeting was ostensibly to discuss the way forward for a bruised and battered Republican party. Yet it was clear that by the time it ended, the near obsessive fascination with Mrs Palin from the public and press alike had only intensified since John McCain's defeat last week. Whether she can sustain such interest and popularity among Republican ranks, while shedding an image as dangerously unintellectual, will be a sub-plot to Barack Obama's presidency in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the race to succeed Mr McCain has already moved to Iowa. Bobby Jindal, the 37-year-old highly rated Governor of Louisiana, heads to the state this month - which kicks off the nominating process in three years - to speak to Christian conservatives.

Mike Huckabee, who won Iowa this year before his presidential hopes collapsed, will be back in the state two days before Mr Jindal, promoting his new book. In Miami there are at least six governors mulling over a White House run. Politicians do not travel to Iowa by accident. “Welcome to the perpetual campaign,” one Republican strategist groaned.

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