Sarah Palin starts her new book tour with an interview reminiscent of the 2008 interviews with Katie Couric and Charles Gibson.

Courtesy of USA Today:  

Sarah Palin, 49, is the original hero of the Tea Party, rallier of the right wing and basher of Barack Obama. But it has been five years since she gained a place in the history books as John McCain's surprise choice of running mate on the Republican presidential ticket. Four years since she unexpectedly resigned as Alaska governor before her term was up. Two years since she bypassed the chance to jump into the 2012 GOP presidential primaries. 

In her first interview about her new book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas, she bristles a bit when asked whether she has been supplanted by a new generation of Tea Party favorites making today's headlines. Some of them are tying Congress in knots, and others are running for their second terms as governor. 

"I know that we get requests every single day for a shout-out, an endorsement, just give a little bit of your time to learning about this issue or what's going on in our part of the country," she tells USA TODAY. "That's every single day, and I appreciate that." She says she wants to spot rising political talent to support and to continue speaking out. In her third book, timed for the holiday season (not a phrase she embraces, by the way), she scalds the "angry atheists with lawyers" and the "political-correct police" she says want to take Christ out of Christmas. 

Palin has only praise for Texas Sen. Cruz and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who helped engineer the anti-Obamacare campaign that led to the controversial partial shutdown of the federal government last month. "It wasn't a shutdown; it was a little bit of a slim-down," she says, and one an "overgrown" government could use. She outlines prominent roles ahead for them and her, albeit hers apparently doesn't involve a bid for Alaska's Senate seat next year or perhaps any elective office again.

If this is how all of Palin's interviews are going to go, she is in for quite a lot of mocking and shaming.

The first question sets the tone:

Susan Page: "You have a new book out, "Good Tidings and Great Joy, Protecting the Heart of Christmas." Does the heart of Christmas need protecting"

Palin: "Uhhh, I think it does Susan. I think that..uh..there are some in our culture today who would want to censor some of our..um..ability, our desire, our right to celebrate Christmas traditionally? And..um..kind of translates into something greater and that is censoring our right to exercise our faith, as we deem fit. So yeah, protecting the heart of Christmas will lead to protecting the heart of our nation, and protecting faith in general."

Susan Page: "So this means things like allowing religious carols in public schools or having merchants say 'Merry Christmas' instead of 'Happy Holidays.'"

Palin: "Sure, here's what our community chooses to do, here is what we would desire to do when it comes to celebrating Christmas in our city, or in our local school district, or a local shopkeeper, for instance, not being made to feel intimidated if they want to put a big 'Merry Christmas' sign. And here is what you do, you show up at a town council meeting. You..um..you write a letter to the editor. You..um..you make your voice heard instead of just capitulating and sitting back and saying 'Oh yeah, I guess there is this erosion of our right to exercise our faith. So be it.' Heck no, don't give up! Don't make..don't let anybody tell you to sit down and shut up, and not celebrate Christmas the way you want to."

Palin's tunnel vision on this issue is quite unbelievable and she demonstrates a complete lack of compassion for anybody of a differing faith.

I am actually an Atheist who has never had any trouble wishing people a "Merry Christmas" because I love the holiday and have never viewed it as a Christian one, due to its pagan roots and modern interpretation. (Who doesn't love Santa Claus?) However now with Sarah Palin pissing on my Christmas Yule Log perhaps I will start to say "Happy Holiday" just to make sure I am not characterized as being on the side of the small minded intolerant people who would agree with her position.

The rest of the interview is just as crazy. When Susan Page asks Palin about Ken Cucinelli, and refers to him as a "Tea Party candidate" this was Palin's response:

"He was the GOP supported candidate, not just the Tea party one. Ken Cuccinell unfortunately allowed the media to create a kind of narrative that..um..would falsely reflect some anti-woman policy that perhaps, some people wanted..um..the electorate to believe about him."

To be clear the media "created a kind of narrative" by reporting on the laws that he helped to pass and statements that he had made in public.  Those bastards!

I have to say that this transcript I have provided really only gives you the general idea of how loony she comes off. If you want to get the entire experience who will have to click the link at the top, but I warn you, wilted, brain cell killing word salad is NOT part of your healthy breakfast.

(While I was typing this Palin appeared on the Today Show, and was even MORE unhinged than she was in this interview. I will post that one later today.)