KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Palin gives first extended interview since campaign

Palin gives first extended interview since campaign

by Rebecca Palsha
Sunday, November 9, 2008

WASILLA, Alaska -- For the first time since losing as Sen. John McCain vice presidential running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin sat down for an interview Sunday.

Channel 2 was invited into the governors home Sunday afternoon to talk about everything from what's it's like speaking in front of a crowd of thousands to the abuse of power investigations to the governor's future political plans.

Palin says despite the loss, running for vice president was a positive experience for her and her family.

As for her plans for the future, the governor says she has not decided what to do in two years when her term expires.

Asked why the McCain-Palin ticket lost, Palin said:

"My goodness there was such a desire for change across the nation. I mean that was that was the given -- change was going to be ushered in, and I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years.

"Americans were kinda shaking their heads going, ‘Wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration? How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration? If we're talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented.'

"And that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing. So, people desiring change I think went as far from the administration that is presently seated as they could."

Palin also talked about why it seemed she was kept away from the national media during the beginning of her campaign.

"I'm not going to say anything negative about the strategy of the campaign, because it was such a positive experience, and I will never say anything negative about John McCain and the people who he surrounded himself with. He had very sharp and professional and experienced people around him in the campaign.

"I do though believe that they were surprised at my desire to be out there speaking to Americans, speaking to Alaskans -- the only way you can do that is through reporters, of course -- and I think they were surprised.

"I think Kyle (Hopkins, a local reporter) called me once on my cell phone, and they were like, ‘A reporter's got your cell phone number?' And I said, ‘That's the way we roll in Alaska, yeah.' I talk to reporters every single day, and I think they were surprised at that -- that that was my desire, to be able to reach out and speak to more people through the media. That took some getting used to."

To hear more of our interview with the governor, stay with us this week. Starting Monday and over the next three days, Channel 2 News will air new excerpts from that interview on both the Newshour and Late Edition each night.

Contact Rebecca Palsha at rpalsha@ktuu.com