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ABC newsman Charles Gibson continues his exclusive, campaign-approved interview with Sarah Palin.
Charles Gibson: On to the energy crisis, Governor. You’ve emphasized drilling in protected areas such as ANWR and off our coasts. Your opponents argue, with considerable expert support, that we can’t drill our way out of the problem. How do you respond?
Sarah Palin: We can too drill our way out of the problem. There are huge untapped oil reserves in Alaska, Charlie. We shouldn’t waste time worrying about polar bears when the voters are paying $4 a gallon for gas.
Gibson: You don’t think it’s important to preserve the polar bears for the future?
Palin: I sure do. But not at the cost of jobs and prosperity. Besides, I’ve got a plan to save the polar bears.
Gibson: You do? May we ask what it is?
Palin: Get private enterprise involved. Create a foundation to expand big game hunting in Alaska. Have regular polar bear hunts. We’d compete with the Texas hill country. All they got is antelopes. A polar bear is a lot bigger. You can hunt’em on foot, or from a copter. The State could rent the copter.
Gibson: I confess you caught me unawares with that suggestion.
Palin: That’s ‘cause you’re not an entrepreneur-type. We could create a whole new industry and a bucketload of jobs.
Gibson: But wouldn’t that reduce the polar bear population, if tourists hunted them?
Palin: Not at all. You could raise the polar bears on a bear farm. See, business would have an incentive to keep the supply going. That’s just good sense, Charlie. And good government.
It was my husband’s idea. I can’t take credit for it.
Gibson: Let’s get back to energy. Are you in favor of developing alternative sources to replace fossil fuels?
Palin: I am. Right now, our whole economy is based on oil. While we’re drilling, we need to come up with other sources. Take wind. We have more wind than any state in the Union. We’re a little weak when it comes to sun, but global warming could actually help us there.
Gibson: You believe in global warming, but you don’t think it’s man-made. May I ask your reasons?
Palin: Simple. God made the Earth. Anything that happens to the earth is therefore God’s will. That’s why global warming isn’t any of our business. God made it, and if He so decides, God will fix it. Our job is mainly to pray.
Gibson: I’ve also heard it said that all this drilling represents something of a rape of the environment.
Palin: This is Alaska, Charlie. No reason to move here, excepting to rape the environment. Too cold for much else. By the way, I forgot to mention nucular power. We need to put a lot of nucular facilities all over the nation. Talk wind and solar all you want. The future is nucular. Back when I ran for Governor, there was a Japanese firm that wanted to build a huge plant here. The liberals howled.
Gibson: Yes, I read about that. They said if the plant was so safe, why didn’t the Japanese build it in Japan? What was the answer, by the way?
Palin: I didn’t ask. That’s none of my concern. As Governor, my concern was to think about jobs. Same way with drilling. Same way with everything.
Gibson: If you were Vice President, would you hold the same view towards the world? Americans first, everything else second?
Palin: Distant second. You better believe it. I know who votes, Charlie. It isn’t Iraqis.
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