After casting vote, Palin discusses her future
Gov. Sarah Palin cast her vote in Wasilla, Alaska and spoke to reporters about her future.(AP PHOTO)
WASILLA, Alaska (CNN) - Sarah Palin appeared calm and confident Tuesday morning during her brief sojourn to Wasilla, Alaska, where she greeted hometown supporters and cast her ballot before departing for Phoenix to join John McCain for an election night rally.
The governor voted shortly after 7 a.m. at her former workplace, Wasilla City Hall. According to the National Weather Service, the temperature at the time was 18 degrees.
Wearing jeans and accompanied by her husband Todd, Palin told reporters who had gathered to watch her vote that she is “very optimistic.”
“Now tomorrow, I hope, I pray, I believe that I'll be able to wake up as Vice President elect, and be able to get to work in a transition mode with the President elect, John McCain,” she said.
Palin refused to say if she had voted to re-elect Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, who was convicted last week of seven felony corruption charges.
“I am also exercising my right to privacy, and I don't have to tell anybody who I vote for, nobody does, and that’s really cool about America also,” she said.
Savoring her final solo appearance as a vice presidential candidate, Palin lingered for several minutes in front of local and national media, taking question after question despite multiple attempts by her staff to end the press conference.
The campaign entourage made two coffee runs while in Wasilla, stopping first in Kaladi Coffee, where the governor ordered two lattes and five regular coffees for her secret service agents.
Before leaving the shop, Palin noticed Tuesday’s edition of the Anchorage Daily News, which led with the news that Alaska’s Personnel Board had cleared the governor of any wrongdoing in the firing of the state’s public safety commissioner. “Board exonerates Palin,” blared the paper’s front page.
Palin showed it to an aide and called it a “nice headline.”
An hour later, she made another pit stop for caffeine, this time visiting Mocha Moose, one of the town’s many free-standing coffee huts. The store’s owners had hung a red banner reading “Palin Fever” by the drive-thru window.
As she waited for her beverages, a local reporter asked the governor how she envisions her role in national politics if McCain loses the election. Palin did not hesitate to muse about a future that might not include being vice president come January.
“You know, if there is a role in national politics it won’t be so much partisan,” she said. “My efforts have always been here in the state of Alaska to get everybody to unite and work together and progress this state.”
“It would certainly be a uniter type of role,” she added.
Asked if she had any regrets about the campaign, Palin bemoaned “the state of journalism today.”
“The blogosphere, the two, three hour news cycles, where just too much is reported based on gossip and innuendo and things taken out of context,” she explained, adding that she’d like to help improve the profession because she has “great respect for the world of journalism.”
NOT! YOU WILL BE BACK IN ALASKA, I HOPE AND PRAY.
PALIN SHOULD GO BACK TO ALASKA AND NEVER LEAVE !!!!
LETS JUST ALL PRAY THAT THIS WAS HER SWAN SONG. SHE DID MORE HARM TO MCCAIN THAN SHE DID GOOD SO I AM SURE THE REPUBS WILL RETHINK ASKING HER FOR ANY OFFICE.
Sarah the DREAMER
In a couple of months she will be sworn in as Senator Palin
I pray to God that her future includes her going back to Alaska and continuing to be a lying, cheating, power abusing person who doesn't care about anyone but herself. Hey Sarah, we are still waiting on your medical report!! Get out and Barack the Vote America!!!
Obama/Biden '08
Its great to see that people with special needs are able to set their goals as high as they as they want despite furrowing their brows in a vain attempt to understand where they are, that is why America is the greatest country in the world
PLEASE.
PLEASE.
PLEASE STAY IN ALASKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why does she use "progress" as a verb??!! Ugh ...
Hopefully this traitor is incarcerated for the rest of her natural born life. If she can't share her medical records, then we know for certain she has some very dark secrets hidden in her closet. We already know she is an anti-american secessionist supporting nut job. We already know she is guity of abusing her power. So knowing what we know, how bad must the secret be that her medical records are hiding.
If there is nothing to hide, then why hide? She's filth, white trash, human garbage. She belongs in prison or deported to a foreign country!
I hope by tomorrow we never have to see or hear this evil witch ever again.
Sarah Palin may have a future in big-time politics, but just not now.
I'm a Registered Republican ... who voted for Obama/Biden this morning!
Let's all hope that Palin's star will have faded sufficiently by 2012 that her name never comes up again. Like Cabbage Patch dolls and Beany Babies, let her go from FAD to FADE.
Another cool thing about America is that we learn from our mistakes. Hopefully idiots like Palin will have no place in our politics.
Gee, does that mean she voted for Stevens?
OMG
I have to say I am in full agreement with Frank.
Frank Fatcherman
I think after you reach a certain age the old should be collected and have their bodies rendered down into usable chemicals for use in industry and agriculture.
Obama Rocks
I believe in future she will find herself rotting in hell.
Sarah the VP dreamer. What do you know about uniting people you witch after all you did with your screeching lies? I will tell you where your future is.. In hot hell hell sitting on a cold toilet sit.
Her future isn't in mine that's for sure! She can hide herself in Alaska and never heard from again as far as I'm concerned.... She's a disgrace to intelligent women in this country!
I can't wait for her face to disappear! We're just hours away from that... Thank God!
What future? She is a quick study but she should not have her mind set on becoming President of the United States. It's not fair what McCain did to the Republican party by selecting her. There should be a committee or a board to override such choices. And they claim Obama is not qualified...helllooooo?
I,personally, am so beyond glad,that after tonight I will NOT have to hear her voice nor her words. Sorry Alaska..you are stuck with her.
If Palin's a "uniter," I'm the Queen of England.
she's spewed so much hate and venom since being nominated that 2/3 of the American public can't stand her. Her only fans are the radical right-wingers of the GOP base.
I sincerely hope she's the next Republican presidential nominee, that will guarantee another Democratic White House.
The only person who world leaders would respect even less than McCain is Palin.
She won't even tell you if she voted for a convicted felon or not. This boggles my mind.