Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell lifted her personal embargo on the national media Thursday in order to grant a 10-minute interview to CNN. During her conversation with CNN reporter Jim Acosta, O'Donnell appeared to dodge a direct question about Sarah Palin's presidential qualifications.
Here's the transcript:
ACOSTA: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be president?
O'DONNELL: Is she running for president? Well again, hypotheticals.
ACOSTA: Does she give you advice?:
O'DONNELL: She gives me 'You go, girl' advice." Don't listen to them.
ACOSTA:Did she really tell you to speak through Fox News?
O'DONNELL: She didn't tell me personally, but I heard her say something like that on 'O'Reilly.' If anybody knows about the politics of personal destruction, it's women candidates, women politicians like Sarah Palin.
O'Donnell won a shocking primary victory over establishment candidate Mike Castle last month thanks, in part, to powerful endorsements from the former Alaska Governor and the Tea Party Express.
The GOP upstart's lack of enthusiasm about her surrogate's presidential aspirations comes just a day after Palin announced, with gusto, that she would "absolutely" be going to Delaware to campaign for O'Donnell.
This marks the second time in a week that a Palin-backed candidate has been markedly cool on answering questions about her potential presidential competence.
A fellow Tea Party-backed Senate candidate, Alaska's Joe Miller, gave an evasive answer regarding the Palin-for-President scenario on Fox news last month, which drew an irate email from Palin's husband, Todd, uncovered this week.
After the snafu, Miller sought to make amends and speak in a little clearer terms about Palin's executive aptitude, but in the end could apparently only muster the reasoning that she filled the "constitutional requirement" necessary to run for president.
Watch the interview, Palin comments start right before the nine minute mark: