“Good to see Gov. Palin here. I never expected to see you paling around in this crowd,” Obama said in a wry reference to Palin’s charging during the campaign that Obama had been “paling around with terrorists.

After a good-natured laugh from the audience, he added, “Congratulations on your Golden Globe for ’30 Rock’.” That was a salute to “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock” star Tina Fey, whose Palin imitations turned out to be one of the campaign’s unlikeliest highlights.