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India Today, via Associated Press Sarah Palin speaking at a conference in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI — Sarah Palin said on Saturday that she wasn’t ready to announce a presidential run. “I don’t think there needs to be a rush,” she said during an appearance at a conference here in New Delhi. Running for political office is a “life-changing decision that so affects a family,” she said, and many questions still needed to be answered.

Ms. Palin’s speech at a conference organized by the media group India Today touched on many subjects, including her sympathy with the people of Japan and their “humble cooperative spirit,” the dangers of a green-energy policy and her children texting her news of a moose in the yard of her Alaska home. Ms. Palin made numerous references to America’s entrepreneurial and pioneering spirit, and India’s unlocking of the same to become a vibrant global giant.

Together, she said, the two countries will lead the world in the 21st century. “There is no natural limit for United States and India relations,” she said. India is the second-fastest growing major economy in the world after China, but is still hobbled by extreme poverty, inefficient infrastructure and political corruption.

Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, were in India for such a short time that they did not get a chance to see the Taj Mahal, in part because it is closed on Fridays, the only day they had free time. Instead, according to local media reports, they went to one of New Delhi’s glitzy new shopping malls.

Hundreds of India’s top business executives, journalists and politicians packed a ballroom at the Taj Palace hotel to hear Ms. Palin. After being introduced as the “sexiest brand in Republican politics,” she detailed her upbringing and her Alaskan political career before riffing on central themes — the importance of individual independence, free markets and the need to drill for oil.

A “secure, stable supply of fuel is key to a prosperous America,” she said. “My vision of a free and prosperous America has much to do with energy.” But that won’t come from green energy, she said, which has destroyed thousands of jobs in Scotland and England and helped create a massive debt in Spain.

America should “capitalize on our own resources right there on our doorsteps,” she said, by tapping into billions of barrels of oil that are “warehoused” in Alaska.

In the past decade the India Today “conclave,” as the conference is called, has played host to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Colin Powell, Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, the writer V.S. Naipaul, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai and the Queen of Jordan, among others.

This year, Ms. Palin’s peers include the Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, Germaine Greer and the “serial hacker” Josh Klein. The conference has been trying to secure Ms. Palin as a speaker for two years, executives said. “We see there is a change happening in America,” Kalli Purie, the director of the conference, said in an interview before Ms. Palin’s speech. “She represents middle America so it is good to get her perspective.”

Ms. Purie would not disclose the fee Ms. Palin earned from the speech, but said the group paid what Ms. Palin’s representative at the Washington Speakers’ Bureau, a booking agency, sought.

After her speech, Ms. Palin answered specific questions about foreign and economic policy. Asked how she might have the handled the financial crisis that led the United States government to fund billions in bank bailouts, Ms. Palin said she “didn’t think it was such a tough situation that had to lead to all those bailouts.” Instead, she said, the government could have allowed “the free market to decide who the winners and losers should be.”

Quizzed on outsourcing, a hot-button issue in India, Ms. Palin evoked free trade several times, affirmatively, to a smattering of applause from the audience.

She was critical of China and America’s relationship with the country, saying “America is economically linked to China. They hold much of the note,” referring to America’s treasury bills. It is a “dangerous place to be,” she said.

She also criticized her own party. “Too often Republicans have the fighting instinct of sheep — they just sit back and take it,” she said. The party was not always happy with her, she also admitted. “I’m pretty independent and some players in the Republican hierarchy don’t like that.” Her independence may have to do with being a “busy mom,” she said. “I’m so busy I don’t have the time to play some of the games these guys want to play.”

Asked why the party lost the last presidential election, Ms. Palin gave a nod to President Obama. “Candidate Obama had a strong campaign and was the agent of change,” she said. Ms. Palin agreed with moderator that she, too, was a change agent but said, “I wasn’t the top of the ticket.” She quickly added: “I’m not saying I should have been.”

Hillary Clinton was as strong a candidate as Barack Obama, she added, and “she had more experience.” Ms. Palin added that it will “be fascinating to see what Hillary decides to do in the coming months.” Ms. Clinton, she predicts, “will be a strong candidate in the future.”

“It is time for a woman to become president,” she added, though it doesn’t necessarily mean she should run. “There are a lot of good potential female candidates out there. There are a lot of gals.”

And asked about her husband’s prospective title if she entered the White House, Ms. Palin made the familiar “First Dude” crack, then suggested a new moniker: “First Gentleman.”

Quickly, though, she added: “Man, that’s getting way ahead of ourselves, isn’t it?”

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CHICAGO – Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi may not yet be a Republican presidential candidate, but his travel itinerary suggests that may be simply a formality, as he visited President Obama’s hometown on Monday before flying to Iowa to begin testing themes of a probable campaign.

In a luncheon speech to the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Barbour delivered a sweeping indictment of the president’s economic and energy policies, saying that expanding the size of government would not lead to the creation of more jobs in the United States.

“Let’s look at their record,” he said. “In the last two years, the federal government spent $7 trillion and our economy lost seven million jobs. I guess we ought to be glad they didn’t spend $12 trillion. We might have lost 12 million jobs.”

Mr. Barbour is among the wide field of Republicans who are considering entering the fight for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. He has said that he intends to make a decision after the Mississippi legislative session ends next month.

In a 30-minute address to business leaders, Mr. Barbour offered a preview to the message of his potential candidacy, with a heavy emphasis on traditional Republican themes of economic growth, job creation and increasing oil production through expanding drilling. He delivered more criticism than specific policy proposals.

“In fairness, the Obama administration arrived in office facing some of the worst economic conditions in decades,” Mr. Barbour said. “But for more than two years, this administration and its Congress has pursued policy after policy that created economic uncertainty or directly hurt the economy.”

As the country’s energy policy takes on heightened importance with the turmoil in the Middle East and the nuclear disaster in the wake of the earthquake in Japan, he said: “The Obama energy policy basically boils down to this: increase the price of energy so Americans will use less of it. That’s an environmental policy, not an energy policy.”

He stopped well short of declaring his intentions. In a question following the speech, a man in the audience asked if Mr. Barbour was ready to announce his presidential bid.

“No,” Mr. Barbour said, not pausing for even a moment. As laughter broke out in the room, he added: “That was easy.”

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Today’s Times

-        House Republicans said on Friday that they would step in to argue for the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act after the Obama administration’s decision to stop defending it. Republican leaders had the option of introducing a resolution on the House floor and allowing members to speak out on the 1996 law that bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages, but instead they released a statement of their intent on Friday afternoon when the House was out of session, the Times’s Jennifer Steinhauer reports. Their collective choice sheds light on a central problem they face in the current Congress: how to reflect the priorities of traditional social conservatives when much of the party’s energy is focused on the federal budget and the national debt.

-        Mr. Obama’s trip to Florida was about more than just education policy, evidenced by his appearance with Jeb Bush, the state’s former governor, and his noticeably nonpartisan campaign speech at back-to-back Democratic fund-raisers. The administration is hoping to position Mr. Obama in the political center as the 2012 election draws near, especially in critical states like Florida, the Times’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg repots. “There are times when we’re were among family, we’re among Democrats where we want to talk about being Democrats,” Mr. Obama began his speech at the first of the two fund-raisers. “But today I want to talk to you a little about being an American; I want to talk about those things that bring us together as opposed to the things that drive us apart.”

Around the Web

-        House Republicans are planning to dismantle the Obama administration’s handy work on the fledgling housing market next week, The Wall Street Journal reports.  In an effort to cut federal spending and lower the national deficit, votes are scheduled in the House to halt funding for two small programs aimed at helping troubled homeowners. Those smaller battles are expected to be a prelude to a larger war against the Home Affordable Modification Program, Mr. Obama’s main foreclosure-prevention effort.

-        “Demonizing immigrants is a losing strategy,” said the chief lobbyist for the National Council of La Raza, Clarissa Martinez de Castro, in an interview with The Atlantic. A new wave of Latin-Americans will soon turn 18 and be eligible to vote, making the largest minority community in the country a possible force to be reckoned with on election day. Their growing political clout could have the power to shift the outcome of future elections, especially against politicians who engage in extreme rhetoric against much of the immigrant community, Atlantic says.

Weekly Address

-        In his weekly address, President. Obama relished the latest news of the unemployment rate falling to its lowest level in nearly two years, but he assured the audience that his administration will not be satisfied until that number is even lower. “Now, we have a lot more work to do, not just for the Americans who still don’t have a job, but for the millions more who still don’t have the right job or all the work they need to live out the American Dream,” he said.  Cutting spending without slowing the newly announced economic momentum was also high on the agenda, as he outlined his plan to work with Republicans to cut the deficit by $1 trillion over the next decade.

Happenings Around Washington

-        Couldn’t make it to Washington for President Abraham Lincoln’s first inauguration? No worries! History will repeat itself today at a public ceremony to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s first inauguration, followed by a re-enactment of the Lincoln inaugural luncheon at the Willard InterContinental Hotel.

-        Libyan Americans will hold a demonstration to show solidarity with the people of Libya who “seek democracy, freedom of speech, liberty.”

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President George W. Bush canceled a speaking engagement Friday because the group that invited him, the Young Presidents Organization, also asked Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, to take the conference stage.

“The former president has no desire to share a forum with a man who has willfully and repeatedly done great harm to the interests of the United States,” Mr. Bush’s spokesman, David Sherzer, said in a statement.

Mr. Bush, his spokesman said, accepted an invitation to speak this weekend at the Global Leadership Summit in Denver, which will include discussions on topics ranging from education reform to the latest unrest in the Middle East. Mr. Sherzer’s statement said the former president only learned he would share billing with Mr. Assange this week.

In a statement, the Young Presidents Organization, a non-profit networking group with 18,000 members, confirmed that Mr. Bush had canceled his appearance.

“We regret that our members will not be able to hear from President Bush,” it said. “President Bush has spoken to our members several times in the past and we hope to have him participate in another YPO event in the future. YPO’s only mission is to enable members to become better leaders through education and idea exchange.”

Mr. Assange appeared at the Young Presidents Organization Friday by satellite conference, according to the Organization’s Twitter feed.

When news broke that Mr. Bush had canceled due to Mr. Assange’s participation, the Wiki Leaks Twitter feed said, “Thin-skinned: George W. Bush cancels talk at http://ypo.org/, after organizers courageously refused to remove Assange as speaker.”

Mr. Assange, whose organization has leaked tens of thousands of military documents and diplomatic cables, is currently living in the United Kingdom. Earlier this week, a British court said that he must be extradited to Sweden where he faces accusations of sexual abuse.

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Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reiterated a common conservative criticism of President Obama on Sunday, implying that the president is embarrassed by the United States.

In an appearance on  “State of the Union” on CNN while promoting his recently released memoir, “Known and Unknown,” Mr. Rumsfeld said that Mr. Obama has not improved the nation’s standing in the eyes of the world.

“I think he has made a practice of trying to apologize for America,” he said. “I personally am proud of America.”

Rebuking Mr. Obama for “apologizing” for the United States is an argument many conservatives, including Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh have employed, criticizing the president for what they characterize as a lack of patriotism at best and a dislike for the country at worst.

In particular, Mr. Obama is both lauded and castigated for his 2009 speech in Cairo on the need for a new era of understanding between the United States and Muslims worldwide. During the speech, he called upon the United States to not let its emotions over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks get in the way of its values.

“The fear and anger that provoked was understandable,” Mr. Obama said, “but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals.”

Mr. Rumsfeld, who served as defense secretary during the Ford and second Bush administrations, also disagreed with the assertion that Mr. Obama is more popular abroad than former President George W. Bush was.

In his new book, Mr. Rumsfeld calls Mr. Bush “a far more formidable president than his popular image,” though he admitted being frustrated with Mr. Bush’s management style, which he paints as somewhat indecisive and short-sighted.

The former defense secretary did have some positive words for Mr. Obama on CNN, primarily concerning those Bush-era national security policies the president has not dismantled — specifically, indefinite detention, military commissions and the Guantanamo Bay prison. In his memoir, Mr. Rumsfeld noted that the Bush administration released more than 500 detainees from Guantanamo Bay. Mr. Obama has released far fewer detainees, but has been criticized by Republicans, who say that even those releases give rise to security risks.

“I knew we ran the risk of mistakenly releasing some people who might attack us in the future, just as is the case in our civilian prison system, but I saw this as a risk that we had to take,” Mr. Rumsfeld said in his book.

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CHICAGO – In a much-anticipated campaign speech on the city’s budget, Rahm Emanuel said he would freeze spending on his first day as mayor and ask department heads to find at least $75 million in spending cuts.

With the mayoral election here just two weeks away, Mr. Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff, gave his speech on the economy at Threadless, a clothing company on the city’s West Side. The city can no longer ignore its structural budget deficit, Mr. Emanuel said.

“The truth is that few businesses will want to come to or invest in a city whose government is weighed down by debt,” he said.

Mr. Emanuel also said that he planned to fix the city’s underfunded pension system. Without offering too many specifics, he said he would work with police and firefighter unions to find an “equitable solution.”

“I know that even mentioning these things has cost me some political endorsements,” he said. “But I am comfortable with that because I think it’s my responsibility to be honest with Chicagoans before they go to the voting booth.”

The police and firefighter unions have endorsed another candidate: Gery Chico, a former chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is retiring. In his budget speech on Tuesday, Mr. Chico also said that it was time for city government to tighten its belt and cut spending.

All the candidates have been focusing on economic issues since the Illinois Supreme Court ruled last month that Mr. Emanuel could be included on the ballot. A lower court had ruled that Mr. Emanuel could not run because he had given up his residency status while he worked at the White House.

After his speech, Mr. Emanuel faced questions from reporters about a filing on Tuesday in the federal corruption case of Rod R. Blagojevich, the former governor who is expected to go on trial again in April.

In a pretrial motion, Mr. Blagojevich’s lawyers claimed that a phone call between Mr. Blagojevich’s aide and Mr. Emanuel was “mysteriously missing” from the evidence in the case. The phone call, which they said included negotiations about President Obama’s former Senate seat, could help prove Mr. Blagojevich’s innocence, the motion said.

Mr. Emanuel told reporters that the White House had reviewed his conversations regarding the Senate seat and had found nothing inappropriate. In his dealings with Mr. Blagojevich, Mr. Emanuel said he offered “thanks and appreciation” — and nothing else.

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