Will Sarah Palin have a second act?

• Sarah Palin says she still receives calls for help every day from around the country
• Palin praises latest conservative stars Ted Cruz and Mike Lee
• Her new book emphasizes Christian aspects of holiday season

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Before Ted Cruz burst on the national political scene, there was Sarah Palin.

After Ted Cruz, is there still much of a place for her?

Sarah Palin, 49, is the original hero of the Tea Party, rallier of the right wing and basher of Barack Obama. But it has been five years since she gained a place in the history books as John McCain's surprise choice of running mate on the Republican presidential ticket. Four years since she unexpectedly resigned as Alaska governor before her term was up. Two years since she bypassed the chance to jump into the 2012 GOP presidential primaries.

In her first interview about her new book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas, she bristles a bit when asked whether she has been supplanted by a new generation of Tea Party favorites making today's headlines. Some of them are tying Congress in knots, and others are running for their second terms as governor.

"I know that we get requests every single day for a shout-out, an endorsement, just give a little bit of your time to learning about this issue or what's going on in our part of the country," she tells USA TODAY. "That's every single day, and I appreciate that." She says she wants to spot rising political talent to support and to continue speaking out. In her third book, timed for the holiday season (not a phrase she embraces, by the way), she scalds the "angry atheists with lawyers" and the "political-correct police" she says want to take Christ out of Christmas.

Palin has only praise for Texas Sen. Cruz and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who helped engineer the anti-Obamacare campaign that led to the controversial partial shutdown of the federal government last month. "It wasn't a shutdown; it was a little bit of a slim-down," she says, and one an "overgrown" government could use. She outlines prominent roles ahead for them and her, albeit hers apparently doesn't involve a bid for Alaska's Senate seat next year or perhaps any elective office again.

"I say, 'Good, Ted Cruz, get out there on the stage,'" she says. "You do it. I want others to have that microphone. I want them to have the platform — the platform that I've been blessed with. Didn't necessarily ask for it and it's by the grace of God. It's undeserved, but I'm not going to just take it for granted. I'm going to utilize it to the best of my ability."

In a Pew Research Center poll last month, Palin wasn't mentioned when respondents were asked to name the leader of the Republican Party. House Speaker John Boehner ranked first and Cruz second. Ten others were cited by at least 1%, among them long-standing figures in the GOP (McCain, Mitt Romney, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell) and some rising stars (Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida). Even radio host Rush Limbaugh and former Texas congressman Ron Paul made the list.

To be sure, Palin can still charge up a crowd. She was one of three featured speakers at evangelist Billy Graham's 95th birthday party here last Thursday, along with North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and Fox News host Greta Van Susteren. In the ballroom of the century-old Omni Grove Park Inn, a steady stream of well-wishers walk up to her table to shake her hand and get her autograph. They pose with her for photos snapped on their smart phones.

Saturday at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, she headlined the fall fundraising dinner for the Faith & Freedom Coalition, an influential group of Christian conservatives in the state that holds the first presidential caucuses.

"Oh, they'll turn out to see her, and they'll cheer," says David Yepsen, a veteran analyst of Iowa politics who is director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. "She's a celebrity. But I doubt she has much influence on their presidential decisions."

"There's always room for a second act in politics, especially for someone who once captured the hearts and minds of many GOPers," says Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, a strategist for Romney's campaign in 2012. "But there seems to be a heckuva lot more competition for the conservative space she occupied, and that's going to make it more challenging."

WHY CAROLS MATTER

Palin's book, published Tuesday by Broadside Books, argues that liberals, the American Civil Liberties Union and non-believers are trying to undermine respect for the nation's religious underpinnings, with possible catastrophic repercussions.

"There is a war on that traditional Judeo-Christian foundation of America, not just at Christmastime but those who are intolerant of the Christian faith, who want to take it away from the rest of us," she says. She urges the like-minded to stand up at school board meetings to protest if religious carols such as O Little Town of Bethlehem are limited at holiday concerts in favor of secular songs such as Frosty the Snowman. She urges consumers to raise questions if store employees wish customers "happy holidays" or "seasons greetings" instead of "merry Christmas."

Her book tour officially begins this week with a stop in Bethlehem — Pennsylvania, that is.

During an hour-long interview, she perches on the edge of her chair, focused, folksy and ready to take on all topics. Her husband, Todd, in jeans and boots, takes a seat across the room in a corner of the resort, a spectacular view of the Blue Ridge Mountains beyond the large windows. She is dressed in black slacks and a cropped black top, with a wide belt encrusted with rhinestones and a red sweater with rhinestones sprinkled across her shoulders. She chose the outfit to suggest the book's Christmas theme, she says.

In the book's introduction, she predicts the caustic reviews it will get in what she calls the Lamestream Media. "The pundits like to pretend that anyone who belongs to the 'Christmas with Christ' version is picking a fight over a nonexistent problem," she writes. "They claim the whole conversation is the result of hypersensitivity, intolerance, or ... ignorance and fear of change. (See how I did that? I just summarized 90 percent of the book reviews for my critics, so they don't even have to read the rest. You betcha, I helped you out!)"

Actually, that is pretty much what critics say.

"Culture warriors have spread the myth of a fanciful 'war on Christmas' for years," says Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU's program on freedom of religion and belief. "This is largely a manufactured controversy. Christmas celebrations in this country are alive and well. As long as the government itself isn't promoting religious doctrine, those celebrations are constitutional."

"There is no war on Christmas," says Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia and scholar on the law of religious liberty. (He argued before the Supreme Court last week on behalf of two plaintiffs, a Jew and an atheist, protesting the recitation of primarily Christian prayers before Town Board meetings in Greece, N.Y.) He calls it a "talking point" for the right, including some conservatives uncomfortable with the nation's growing religious diversity.

"A certain portion of the Christian community are accustomed to imposing their beliefs on everybody because it didn't really matter; there were not that many non-Christians," he said in an interview. "But now there's 25%."

Palin's book is a Christmas-themed hodgepodge of political arguments, holiday traditions, family snapshots and seasonal recipes for dishes including "Merry Christmoose Chili" and blueberry pie. She describes "Eskimo bingo," a sort of round-robin version of gift-giving. And she warns about the dire state of Christmas Future if the Birkenstock-wearing, NPR-listening liberals aren't fought now.

"In national news, President-elect Romney is preparing to finally move into the White House," her account of December 2028 says in a side note. "I guess the sixth time's the charm."

A WARNING FOR CHRISTIE

Palin says she wants to identify and promote like-minded partisans for office through SarahPac, her leadership political action committee. In the 2012 election cycle, the largest single donation was $15,000 to Cruz, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. It contributed a modest $298,500 in all to a mix of Tea Party challengers and conservative incumbents.

She is no fan of the Republican establishment, especially those who argue that the Tea Party has defined the GOP in a way that is costing it elections.

• On New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who won a landslide re-election last week: "I'd like him more if he would stand up and say, 'Rah-rah, Tea Party, and thanks for not opposing me,'" she says. "He should hope that, say, if he were to run for president, he should hope that conservatives don't stay home."

• On Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, who lost: She disputes the argument by some Republicans that his Tea Party association played a role in his defeat. "Isn't that funny because this establishment in the GOP keeps getting it wrong, so I wouldn't trust their post-game analysis: 'Oh, if you had only listened to us.' How's that working for you, America?" She derides "the old-school-thinking Republicans who think that this is a time to compromise and reach out across."

• On having Tea Party candidates challenge incumbent Republican senators in Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee next year: "I had aggressive, very competitive primaries in my own 20 years in politics," she says. (Palin lost in the GOP primary for lieutenant governor in 2002, then defeated incumbent Frank Murkowski for the Republican nomination for governor in 2006.) "I've never had an easy ride into any office. I've always had to take on sitting Republicans. I've always had to take on the machine. And I think it's made me personally a better candidate, and I think that can apply to everybody running for office. Nobody should have an easy ride into office."

That said, she doesn't seem to be contemplating a return to elective office herself. "Never say never," she shrugs when asked if she might run for the Republican nomination against Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents up in 2014. But she indicates she is considering which of three contenders — Joe Miller, Mead Treadwell and Dan Sullivan — she might endorse. "We have some good guys running for the Senate in Alaska," she says.

Does she miss being in office?

"Being in elected office, being a politician with a title and an office in some respects is stifling" and can leave a person feeling "shackled," she says. "There is great freedom in what I'm doing now, and I love freedom."

So, no.