"Huh"

Sarah Palin declares for her 2012 campaign:

Blitzer: Republican VP Candidate Sarah Palin now speaking out openly about her intentions in 2012 if - if - she and John McCain were to lose this contest next Tuesday. In an interview with ABC News, Sarah Palin is now saying she would be interested in remaining a serious national political figure going ahead to 2012.  She was asked, what happens in 2012 if you lose on Tuesday - do you simply go back to Alaska - Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News asked her - and Palin said this, and I'll read it to you verbatim according to an ABC transcript:

Absolutely not.  I think that if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender, I think that some of the political shots that we've taken - that that would bring this whole - and I'm not doing this for naught."

And that's a direct quote from Sarah Palin.

When a candidate who is down in the polls is asked the inevitable, "What will you do if you lose?" question, the standard response should be, "I will win." You never talk about what you will do if you lose because the idea of losing is one that should never enter your dialog.

I love the McCain campaign's response:

Blitzer: Any reaction yet, Dana, from this blunt statement that she would in fact be interested in leading the Republican Party going forward after Tuesday if they lose?

Bash: I just got off the phone, Wolf, with a senior McCain adviser and I read this person the quote and I think it's fair to say that this person was speechless. There was a long pause and I just heard a "huh" on the other end of the phone. I mean, this is certainly not a surprise to anybody who has watched Sarah Palin that she is interested in potentially a future national run. Certainly she is being urged to be a lot of people inside the Republican Party if they do lose, but it is an if, and people inside the McCain campaign - they do not want ANY discussion that has in "if" in front of it six days before the election.

Update: ABC News story