Palin won't say whether she's running

MANCHESTER, N.H., Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told supporters New Hampshire Monday "I appreciate your encouragement" but wouldn't say whether she plans to run for president.

At a rally in Manchester, many supporters had expected Palin to announce her candidacy and some chanted, "Run, Sarah, Run!"

"I appreciate your encouragement," she told the crowd. "I do."

Speaking to about 600 people -- more than twice the number who attended a Tea Party event for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in Concord, N.H., Sunday -- Palin repeated her familiar criticisms of President Barack Obama, big government and "beltway types," CBS News reported.

"Solutions come from you," she said. "It is you who run our factories and own our small businesses, who fight our wars, who build our communities with a service heart. That is our country. ... Hope is in you. It's not that nebulous, hopey-changey stuff we heard in 2008."

Palin -- the Republican vice president nominee in 2008 -- said Monday the Tea Party is "bigger than any one candidate" and is "about bringing together discussion from we the people -- not the politicos, not those inside-the-Beltway types that have fought the Tea Party movement."

On the CBS News "Early Show," Jim DeMint, R-S.C., a Tea Party leader, said "it doesn't appear" Palin will run.

"She's done a lot, I think, to engage the American people and stir things up, which we really needed to do, to get American citizens more involved in the process," DeMint said. "It made a big difference in the last election. My hope is it'll make an even bigger difference in the next election, as people take back their government."