For former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the future is all about doors.
When the Republican governor of Alaska is asked whether she is interested in a Senate seat or a presidential bid, she talks about looking for open doors and bursting through doors.
One door that Palin has not found since the Nov. 4 election is the Exit door. The once-obscure moose hunter is now seemingly omnipresent. She has been all over national television this week.
In one interview, Greta van Susteren of Fox News asked Palin about her political plans. Palin responded that for now she is the governor, and her term lasts for two more years.
But, she added: "I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere — this is what I always pray — don't let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is, even if it's cracked open a little bit, maybe I'll plow right on through that and maybe prematurely plow through it. But don't let me miss an open door."
In another interview, Palin told Larry King of CNN: "My life is in God's hands. If he's got doors open for me that I believe are in our state's best interest, the nation's best interest, then I'm going to go through those doors."
And to CNN's Wolf Blitzer, she said: "I put my life in God's hands and ask him to — don't let me miss some open door that he has for me, and I will travel through that."
On NBC's Today show, Matt Lauer asked her how she felt about being characterized as a "diva" by anonymous McCain staffers. "Well, it made me feel like people — you know, unless they're going to put their name and face to a false allegation like that, any allegation, then they're cowards," Palin replied.
And on Thursday she addressed the Republican Governors Association in Miami. She spoke of ceilings instead of doors, saying that she was glad to have inspired young girls and that she wants "no more ceilings on achievement, glass or otherwise."
If she chooses the right door, Palin — a plain-spoken spark plug who momentarily ignited the McCain campaign — may have a future in national politics. For instance, in the Senate. Alaska's Ted Stevens, who was convicted last month of seven felony counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts, is locked in a tight race for re-election (the votes are still being counted). If he wins and is stripped of his Senate seat, Palin could run in a special election to replace him.
Palin told Blitzer that she is not actively pursuing a Senate seat. But "if something shifted dramatically," she said, "and if it were — if it were acknowledged up there that I could be better put to use for my state in the U.S. Senate, I would certainly consider that. But that would take a special election and everything else."
There is talk that Palin could go after the Senate seat of another Republican, Lisa Murkowski, in 2010. And speculation is rampant that she might run for president in 2012.
Van Susteren asked Palin about that possibility, and the governor brought out her doors again.
"If there is an open door in '12 or four years later," Palin said, "and if it's 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. But I can't predict what's going to happen, you know. I can't predict what's going to happen a day from now, much less four years from now."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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