(NBC)
If Sarah Palin hopes to keep her name—and the Palin brand—in the GOP discussion ahead of the Republican Convention in August, she is doing a pretty good job of it.
Before her co-hosting duties on the "Today" show on Tuesday, Palin sat down with Matt Lauer for an interview to discuss the Republican presidential race. And the former Alaskan governor—as she's done in previous interviews—hinted that she'd be open to being included on a GOP ticket.
"Anybody but Obama," Palin said when asked if she'd be happy about Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee. "I honestly believe that anybody running on a GOP ticket would be infinitely better than what we have today, with these failed socialist policies."
"Would you like to see some more choices?" Lauer asked. "A lot of people are saying it is not too late to shake this up at the convention: Someone like Chris Christie or Jeb Bush or Mitch Daniels or Sarah Palin could come in here and shake things up and give Republicans another choice."
"There is no perfect candidate," Palin responded. "And, you know, I would warn voters to never put their faith wholly in an individual, in a politician, because a politician will disappoint you. But have faith in what that politician stands for. What their record represents. And in the choices that we have in the GOP now, the four gentlemen who are running, they're all good. They all have their strengths. And as I say, America will be better off with any of them."
Palin was then asked about who might be a good choice for the vice presidential nominee, should Romney win the GOP race.
"When you were plucked from obscurity in 2008, you'd been Alaska's governor about two years," Lauer said. "You didn't have any real experience on the national stage, and in this era of intense media scrutiny, you took some lumps. You had mixed results, as we all know. Do you think, if Mitt Romney is the nominee, he should choose someone with more experience on the national battlefield than you had at the time?"
The former vice presidential candidate responded using the kind of corporate flowchart language Romney favors.
"Well, you know, I would put up my record as a CEO of a city, of a state, as an oil and gas regulator, up against any of the other potential GOP vice presidential nominees last go-around," Palin said.
From the transcript:
I would say it doesn't matter if that person has national level experience or not, they're going to get clobbered by the mainstream media who does not like the conservative message. And it doesn't matter if that person has been a known commodity to the mainstream, lamestream media or not. The GOP ticket, to tell you the truth, Matt, doesn't know what's coming. They don't know what's going to hit them in terms of double standards being applied to them and the positions that they hold, and the records that they are running on from, you know, personal family issues to anything else. There will be that double standard applied no matter who it is. What I would advise Mitt Romney, or whomever the nominee would be, don't necessarily play it safe, and do just what the GOP establishment expects them to do. And that is, to get somebody kind of just going along to get along, not willing to go rogue and get up and say that we need relentless, and we need sudden reform of our government to put it back on the side of the people.
Lauer pointed out to Palin that co-hosting the 8 o'clock hour of the "Today" show "technically makes you part of the lamestream media."
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