Opinion: Sarah Palin reclaims her inner fisherwoman: ‘Politically, if I die, I die. So be it.’

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The governor of Alaska went fishing Monday, wearing those waders with suspenders that fishermen fancy, accompanied by her baby, Trig, daughter Piper and her husband, First Dude for a Few More Weeks Todd Palin. Oh, and she alerted the media.

What a spectacle -- the stars of America’s cable news personalities from Fox, NBC, CNN, ABC meeting the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the shores of Kanakanak Beach in Dillingham, Alaska, while the governor brushed salmon slime off her suspenders and blasted the media, bloggers and anyone who would dare question her politically bizarre decision to quit in the middle of her first term.

To Fox, she expressed bitterness at those who peppered her with ethics accusations, saying that their ridiculous charges had nearly bankrupted her family and brought Alaska’s government to a grinding halt. ‘The critics want to put you on a course of personal bankruptcy so you can’t afford to serve,’ she said, calling the attacks ‘bull crap.’

She was coy about her plans for 2012, musing that it was difficult to know what the political future would hold, let alone the next salmon run. But she was quick to criticize President Obama. As she led reporters in a boat across Bristol Bay, she opined, ‘Average, hard-working Americans need to be able to get out there, unrestrained, and fight for what is right. Fight for energy independence and national security, fight for a smaller government instead of this big government overgrowth that Obama is ushering in.’

As the Ticket noted over the weekend, Palin has a tendency to sound like former President Richard Nixon, who intoned in the middle of the Watergate scandal, ‘I am not a crook.’ Three days after resigning as governor of Alaska, effective at month’s end, Palin told CNN, ‘I am not a quitter. I am a fighter.’

She told ABC she’s pleased with her decision, damn the consequences. “I’m extremely happy,’ she said. ‘Politically speaking, if I die, I die. So be it.”

And when NBC’s Andrea Mitchell said that some would say she didn’t finish the job, Palin’s voice rose. ‘You’re not listening to me as to why I wouldn’t be able to finish that final year in office without it costing the state millions of dollars and countless hours of wasted time,’ she snapped.

Noting that ‘everything changed’ last August when Republican presidential candidate John McCain asked her to be his running mate, Palin said she had no regrets about accepting the nomination. ‘Not in the least,’ she said. ‘It was a great honor to stand by a great American hero. I would have done all that again in a heartbeat.’

-- Johanna Neuman

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