Sarah Palin Slams Obama at Iowa Tea Party Rally, Doesn't Announce 2012 Ambitions

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was again met with chants of "Run, Sarah, run!" at a Tea Party rally in Iowa Saturday, but she made no formal announcement regarding her 2012 presidential ambitions.

Palin did have harsh words for President Barack Obama and the direction she said the country has taken in his first term in office, including America's transformation "from a nation of hope to one of anxiety."

"Is this what you call winning the future? I call it losing the country!" she said. "Candidate Obama didn't have a record while he was running for office, but President Obama sure does and that's why we're here today," Palin said.

She said "America is hurting" and at "a tipping point" due to "failed policies and incompetent leadership."

"Barack Obama is adrift with no plan," Palin said. "That hopey, changey stuff didn't create one job in August, did it?"

Fueling additional speculation about whether she'll join the Republican field, Palin took a few swipes at the current crop of candidates, specifically Texas Gov. Rick Perry, with a thinly-veiled comment about "GOP candidates [who] raise mammoth amounts of cash" but "we can't afford more trillion-dollar thank you notes to campaign backers."

She also set out a few ideas of her own of ways to get the country back on track, including eliminating all federal corporate income taxes, closing loopholes in the tax code, repealing the health care law and tapping America's own natural resources for domestic energy production.

Palin's speech marked the third-year anniversary since she was introduced to the country as Sen. John McCain's 2008 running mate.

Taking a dig at McCain, she recalled his use of the term "hobbits" to describe members of the Tea Party during the debt ceiling debate.

"Hobbits...couldn't understand that one!" Palin said to cheers. She also said if the Tea Party's cuts-only approach had been followed, the U.S. would not have been "humiliated" by Standard and Poor's credit downgrade.

Echoing some of the backlash she received during her time on the campaign trail, she cautioned the Tea Party: "You will be demonized. They'll mock you, they'll make things up, they'll tell you to go to hell."

"We'll bite our tongue, we'll keep it classy," she continued. "We don't have to say that because when we have time-tested truth and logic on our side, we win."

You can watch the entire speech below, via Mediaite:

Part I

Part II