Gov. Palin on Greta: Hammer Our Records, Lay Off Pettiness

“Hammer on our records, but lay off the petty stuff!” Governor Palin said last night in an interview with Greta Van Susteren. In an exchange that was unusually testy, Van Susteren said that candidates too often take the bait and Gov. Palin fired back, that when reporters call you and are going to run a story whether it is true or not and you don’t respond to them, you’ve lost the opportunity to set the record straight – but now you’ve ‘taken the bait.’ “I’ll promise not to take the bait, but you get the facts out: who, what, when, where, why, and how.” she said.

Gov. Palin said that candidates’ past actions are reflective of character and are fair game. She said that there was a double standard wherein Obama’s record and past associations were not explored, but conservative candidates appeared to receive higher scrutiny. Greta retorted that she has seen horrible things said about Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, and based on that observation, she believed female politicians are being targeted.

Gov. Palin closed the segment that aired on Fox News by saying, “compare, contrast, and explore their [candidates’] records. Their decisions affect our lives.”

In the opening minutes of the interview, Gov. Palin said the “principles of the [Republican Party] are sound and the planks in our platform are right for America.”

“The media’s appropriate role is to hold candidates’ feet to the fire, but not to play ‘gotcha,'” she said.

“We have the right to ask Newt Gingrich ‘what were you thinking when you said the Ryan Plan is ‘radical right wing social engineering’? The Ryan Plan will save us $1.2 billion per day and it preserves Medicare for seniors,” Gov. Palin said.

When asked about running for President in 2012, Gov. Palin said, “I do have the fire in my belly” and that she “adamantly supports” traditional American values and free markets. But the “practical and pragmatic” decisions weigh on her mind. Gov. Palin has a large family and she wants to be sure her children can handle the rigors, scrutiny, and attacks a Presidential campaign will bring. Gov. Palin acknowledged that her children “have been through it all,” from the prior campaign and its aftermath.

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Our Entire Raw, Unedited Interview with Former Gov. Palin retrieved from GretaWire.