Articles | 'You betcha I'll help Obama'

'You betcha I'll help Obama'

Published: Thursday, 13 November 2008, 10:46AM

Former vice-presidential running mate Sarah Palin says she is ready to help President-elect Barack Obama wherever she can.

Mrs Palin, the Alaska Governor, was effectively hidden from the public during the final weeks of campaigning over fears of making potential gaffes, but is now giving a number of television interviews.

She told CNN's Wolf Blitzer she could help Mr Obama on energy matters, which she says are her expertise, as the US should not rely so heavily on foreign resources. Mrs Palin added: "It would be my honour to assist and support our new president and the new administration."

However, she also stressed her concerns about Mr Obama's association with William Ayers, the co-founder of the radical left organisation Weather Underground, which conducted a campaign of bombing public buildings during the 1960s and 1970s.

He is now a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the titles of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar.

"If anybody still wants to talk about it, I will," she said. "Because this is an unrepentant domestic terrorist who had campaigned to blow up, to destroy our Pentagon and our US Capitol. That's an association that still bothers me and I think it's still fair to talk about it."

She added: "However, the campaign is over. That chapter is closed. Now is the time to move on and to make sure again all of us are doing all that we can to progress this nation."

Mrs Palin, asked in another interview if she had cost Arizona Senator John McCain the election, replied: "I personally don't think that I, Sarah Palin from Alaska, the VP pick, I don't believe that I caused the outcome to be what it was.

"I think the economy tanking a couple of months ago had a lot more to do with it than the VP pick."

Earlier this week, Mrs Palin did not rule out running for president in 2012, saying: "If there is an open door in (20)12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door."