Palin On 2012: So Far Away

FNC's pool report of Sarah Palin's departure from AZ is available after the jump.

Per the report ... She left wearing a blue "Alaska Grown" sweatshirt and black sweatpants and her hair up. She held her baby, Trig, and was joined by daughter Piper and husband Todd Palin. She spoke to reporters for seven minutes about how she's feeling, what she's learned, what might've been different and her future role in the party.

Read on.

QUESTION: How are you feeling?

A: Feelin’ great, feelin’ great. Can’t wait to get back to work there in Alaska, hoping to be able to convince the new administration that will be ushered in here that we need to be energy independent and that Alaska needs to be leading on the energy independence front, and we can do that. We have the resources up there. So we’ll reach out to Barack Obama and to the people who he surrounds himself with. A united effort that we certainly will be making here in order to secure our nation and allow us to be more prosperous. We look forward to this.

QUESTION: What did you learn from this campaign?

A: It’s been a wonderful, wonderful campaign and it has really shown me that Americans have so much more in common and alike than we do have differences. As we all seek good opportunities for our families, for children, for America’s future. Surely we need ot find some common ground here as we progress this nation because again it was shown to me every single day in this nation in this campaign that Americans want to work together. And they expect a lot more from their elected officials in terms of being able to work together so learned that, it was confirmed in me. It’s what we do up there in Alaska in working together, bipartisan, nonpartisan efforts to progress. We need to do that on a national level too.

QUESTION: Anything that you would’ve done differently?

A: Just still wish there were more hours in the day so we could’ve gotten out and about, even more so across these wonderful communities that we’re able to stop in. wish we could’ve been even more aggressive in terms of the stops that we could have made and talked to more Americans to get that message out about what John McCain has to offer. And though this chapter has closed now in the campaign, John McCain still has so much to offer this country and he as a leader now in the senate, he as a uniter, I think that you’re going to see him in a leadership role, being able to work with the president elect in this transition period that’s going to be a very crucial time to show that ability to unite America. John McCain is going to help lead in that direction also.

QUESTION: What do you see as your role in the party going forward?

A: I see my role as the governor of Alaska allowing our nation to become energy secure. Again understanding the importance of energy security, it’s a national security issue, it’s an energy and economic independence issue that we need to be working on. Alaska can lead this effort and as governor I wanna be there on the forefront helping to make this nation more secure.

QUESTION: Governor any 2012 thoughts?

A: Oh you know it seems like so far--2012 we will be enrolling him in Kindergarten (she is holding Trig). She'll be headed to what? About 5th grade, 6th grade by then (points to Piper). Uh those are my thoughts at this point is 2012 seeming a far way off today. Just very anxious to get back to work in my governor's office in Anchorage and in Juneau and ya know making sure Alaskans know that they're going to be well taken care of in terms of what their governor's office will provide. The service, the accountability, transparency. All the good things we ushered in 2 years ago. We are going to continue that today when we get off the airplane tonight in Anchorage.

QUESTION: What does it say about the country that we had a female VP nominee and elected an African-American president?

A: It says all good things about our country, and the progress that we have made and the barriers that have come down. I couldn’t be more proud of where we are today, you know, this minority status now being kind of propelled to the forefront, that’s healthy. And also of course, women, when I was in these rallies, and I saw the young girls there cheering me on, cheering John McCain on, that was so inspiring for me, knowing that some day one of those young girls, she’s gonna be the president, and if I had any role at all in helping to inspire these young women, I want them to study hard, work hard, and they’ll have a couple of extra hurdles in front of them, no doubt, I want them to plow through those hurdles, progress, do good things for themselves, their families, their communities and this nation. One day, one of them’s going to be the president.

QUESTION: What about your own role in history, have you thought about that at all? Have you had time to reflect?

A: It’s been an honor and I feel like it’s just been such a blessing to have the opportunity to represent women who work hard all across this nation every single day, as they too balance that life/work balance that needs to be struck, and just being able to represent women, I’m honored, humbled at the same time to have had this opportunity. And whatever happens for me in the future, especially in terms of being able to help progress the women’s movement also, I’m not gonna let women down. I’m gonna keep working hard.

QUESTION: There’s a lot of post mortem discussion going on and people are pointing fingers every which way. People have said some stuff about you and your role in the campaign. Do you have any response to that?

A: I don’t know what they’re saying or who they are but certainly if anything is based on any kind of anonymous source, I certainly won’t even comment on it. But I have absolutely no intention of engaging in any of the negativity because this has been all positive for me for what I believe in, the values that I represent and the progress that I wanna see America be able to make. Just absolutely no time for the pettiness. And that’s kinda just the way I’m wired. I don’t have time for that. This is an historic moment. Barack Obama has been elected president. Let us, let us—let him be able to kind of savor this moment, one, and not let the pettiness of maybe internal workings of the campaign erode any of the recognition of this historic moment that we’re in. And God bless Barack Obama and his beautiful family and the new administration coming in. It is time that we all pulled together and worked together and America’s going to reach her destiny.

QUESTION: Are you disappointed or Does it make you sad at all? All this talk? (Referring to previous question).

A: I guess that's the nature of the beast of--of politics at this level. But, I'm not going to engage in it. We are going to go above and beyond any of the pettiness and again reiterate that for us--for my friends--for my family it has been entirely positive and refreshing and energizing. I have nothing negative to say at all.