KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Part 1: Sarah Palin talks with Channel 2 while on book tour

Part 1: Sarah Palin talks with Channel 2 while on book tour

Interview by John Carpenter
Monday, November 23, 2009

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Sarah Palin got her start in the public eye at Channel 2 Sports. John Carpenter joined her on her book tour last week and conducted an interview where he asked questions about what it's like on tour, her take on Alaskan issues and her future plans. Here is Part 1 of the interview:

Channel 2 News: Thank you very much for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to talk with us.

Sarah Palin: I'm so happy to see you, to see this touch from Alaska. Thank you, John.

Channel 2 News: So, first of all, I've got to talk about the book tour, the people in the line; you're a rock star! How does it feel to be a rock star?

Sarah Palin: Well, no I am not, but you know that line, last night and today, it seemed like every other person had some kind of Alaskana logo on a T-shirt or a hat. They're just so proud to have their little claim to Alaska, their connection from maybe 20 years ago (when) they visited. And I think it's really cool that Alaska has this presence here in the Lower 48 right now and it's all positive.

Channel 2 News: (It's) a small country when you get down to it.

Sarah Palin: Absolutely. That's what it shows us.

Channel 2 News: How is it physically on you to sign your name 2,000 times, 3,000 times in three hours?

Sarah Palin: Over the weekend I did 5,000 book plates and you know, I'm thinking, OK, we've got to talk sports analogy with this and compare it-- it's going to be like running a marathon. There may be a point here where you think you're going to hit the wall physically, because it could be, I guess, very, very tiring, exhausting, at the end of this long tour, but, you know that great reward is at the end of the line. For me that great reward is meeting with some absolutely amazing, awesome people all over the country, so it's worth it. It's like running a marathon.

Channel 2 News: Is that what you're doing this for, to meet the people and get back out there?

Sarah Palin: Absolutely! And it's fun. It's awesome, it's invigorating. I love this freedom to get to do this.

Channel 2 News: What was it like to write a book about yourself? That seems like it would be a surreal experience.

Sarah Palin: You don't have to tell my publisher and editor, but I'm really glad that that exercise is over-- writing about myself. In fact, in my acknowledgements pages I reflect that, I say, ‘glad this is over,' because I don't like writing about myself. I'm happy I have journaled through my whole life, journaled those days at Channel 2, journaled my college days and really since I was a little girl all the way up until today so a compilation of those journals-- it wasn't a real difficult thing to put the book together, and I'm thankful that I had done that. But, I don't ever want to write about myself again. It's a lot of self-centeredness, literally to get through that.

Channel 2 News: Let me ask you a couple of things about Alaska stuff.

Sarah Palin: Yeah!

Channel 2 News: AGIA, It seems like it's running out of gas (in Alaska). It was one of your administration's biggest accomplishments, but it seems like it's run out of gas. What do they need to do?

Sarah Palin: Man, we cannot run out of gas. We have to have that enthusiasm toward AGIA and the Lower 48 is counting on Alaska too. Alaska's going to come into its own quite soon here, in terms of the contributions that our state will be making to the rest of the Union, and AGIA is going to be a huge part of that.

Channel 2 News: What would you do (with AGIA) if you were still governor?

Sarah Palin: We need to remind the lawmakers of their enthusiasm and that overwhelming support to get this gas line off the dime, the project. Other administrations, they've been talking about it for decades in Alaska; we know that there is the need. And Alaska has the ability now to get the thing built. We have a great partner in TransCanada Alaska (and) Exxon, (the) largest company in the world wanting to partner with the best pipeline building company in the world.

There is nothing wrong with the proposal, we can sit around and keep talking about it, but Alaskans are expecting that their lawmakers remember what they voted for, remember all the hard work that lawmakers put into crafting the bill with the administration and adopting it, and let's move forward. Otherwise, we're just going to be like any other decade in Alaska when we're just talking the talk thinking that at some point this dream of a gas line will be built. That's ridiculous because we have the tool already in AGIA to actually, physically get the thing done."

Channel 2 News: Talk about ACES now, reading your book and watching people; they see you as a conservative standout. ACES, Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share, that actually raised taxes on the oil people, how do you as a conservative say it's ok to raise taxes?

Sarah Palin: You know what, it wasn't like this was a trinket or a widget being crafted by some industry and then government comes in and taxes it. The resources in Alaska underground are owned by the people of Alaska. We're unlike any other state and our constitution has set this up for it, so we have to get a fair and a very clear value for the resources that we own. That is what we are reliant upon in Alaska for all of state revenue, essentially-- 85 percent.

So valuing our resources there with oil and gas is a very appropriate thing to do. The level of taxation on that oil and gas is an average, it isn't an excessive tax. And what we did with ACES was incentivise new explorers so it wouldn't be a locked-up basin up on the North Slope. (So) that new explorers could come in and there are great incentives for the explorers. And we're hearing from industries saying, ‘Oh, OK, we get it, thank you.' And we are seeing new players want to be up there, so it's worked.

Part 2 of the interview will air Tuesday on the NewsHour.

Contact John Carpenter at jcarpenter@ktuu.com