June 2008 Sarah Palin Interview

Larry Kudlow of Kudlow & Company interviewed Gov. Palin about drilling in ANWR. Here are a few snippets of the interview with Gov. Sarah Palin (emphasis mine):

Kudlow: All right, drill, drill, drill! Nobody does it better than Alaska, if only Congress would let it. So here to tell us all about it, Alaska Republican Governor Sarah Palin.
Governor Palin, thank you ever so much for coming on. We appreciate it. I want to start with this, it’s an oddball question. I mean, Senator McCain says it's too pristine to drill. Senator Obama says the drilling won't work. What is your response to this? How do you fight back?
Palin: Well it will work. And Senator McCain is wrong on that issue. He’s right on a whole lot of other issues, so thank goodness that he’s understanding and evolving with his position on OCS [Outer Continental Shelf]. So that’s encouraging. I think he’s going to evolve into, eventually, supporting ANWR opening also.

Kudlow: Why don’t we just liberate, and decontrol, and deregulate the whole bloody energy business – whether it’s oil, gas, shale, nuclear, coal, natural gas, as well as wind and solar – why don’t we just decontrol, deregulate, go for an America first energy policy? Get independent of Saudi Arabia? America first. Create all of these millions of high paying jobs. Why isn’t anybody talking about that in this race? That’s the natural, Reaganesque thing to do. Isn’t it?
Palin: Yeah absolutely! You’re hitting the nail right on the head. That’s what so many of us normal Americans are asking. The same thing. Why aren’t the candidates talking like that? Where we can secure America and we can be more independent when we talk about energy sources if we could drill domestically... You have the supplies in your sister state called Alaska, where we’re ready, willing and we’re able to pump these supplies of energy, flow them into hungry markets across the U.S. We want it to happen. It’s Congress holding us back.

Kudlow: Alright. I’ve got some sound from Senator John McCain. Please take a listen.
Audience member: Would you consider Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for a vice-presidential running mate?
McCain: Could I say that this meeting is adjourned? [Laughter]. We’re still going through the process, but the governor of Alaska is a wonderful person, and very popular in her state, and very honest and straightforward, and I think has a future in our party
Kudlow: Alright Governor, you probably heard Senator McCain waltz his way through that one. Let me just ask you. If he asked you to be his vice-president, would you accept in light of your disagreement, apparently, over ANWR drilling?
Palin: Well I’d like the opportunity to get to change his mind about ANWR, I’ll tell you that. But Larry, I’m gonna give you the same answer that any other potential VP gives you and that is you know, I really enjoy my job here in Alaska as governor. I believe that there’s a lot that Alaska could be and should be doing to contribute to the rest of the U.S. And I think I can do that in my job here in Alaska. And I know that, again, the other potential VPs are saying the same thing that they like where they are today. So I also have to say though that it’s really probably out of the realm of possibility to be tapped for that position, so I don’t even have to worry about it.

OK, I have a few questions. Should we expect to see McCain flip-flop on this issue? And, if he does, what would it say about him as a presidential candidate to change his position to fit the ideals of his running mate instead of the other way around? Or, did Palin change her strongly held beliefs about ANWR to accept the offer? Plus, what does it tell us that three months ago, Palin felt that being picked as McCain's running mate was "out of the realm of possibility"? Sen. Obama's vetting process started in June after he became the presumptive nominee. McCain has been the GOP presumptive nominee since March. So, did McCain vet Palin and she just felt that there was know way it would happen? Or, had they not vetted her so she didn't "have to worry about it"? Also, why did she refer to Alaska as a "sister state" of America? If I understand correctly, sister states and cities are considered a type of symbolic reference of solidarity across international lines. Alaska is an actual state. It is one of fifty represented on our flag. Did it suddenly attain arguable status similar to Puerto Rico? Is she so pro-Alaska that she doesn't consider it part of the Union? Or am I just not understanding the term "sister state"? I have never heard anyone refer to a state in this country as a sister state of America. I know it is far, but it is still a state.
Needless to say, this interview bothers me. Mostly because I really want to stop talking about Sarah Palin. But she is such an unknown that I feel we citizens have been forced to vet her ourselves.