The headline will be that she's ready to jump on an energy panel to serve Barack Obama in the spirit of bipartisanship he has instilled in even the most hateful of backwoods politicians. In fact, she says she's happy to help him tap into domestic resources to earn our energy independence— an idea both campaigns supported in theory, but only one was willing to move on if it required anything beyond converting to greener light bulbs.

The headline on this will be that the hateful, backwoods politician who promises bipartisanship is talking out of both sides of her mouth, but she's asked about the Ayers association, specifically. She quite reasonably answers that the association didn't magically stop bothering her as soon as Obama had won the election. She displays a bit of the incredulity many McCain backers feel that neither the media nor many voters thought that the man's too-comfortable relationship with a radical unrepentant, domestic terrorist was pertinent to Obama's judgment. I feel you, Sarah. I feel you.

She delivers perhaps the best defense of that line of attack I heard throughout the campaign: "I do not think that it is off-base, nor mean-spirited, nor negative campaigning to call someone out on their associations and their record, and that's why I did it." Lord knows she sure answered for her associations. Would that McCain could have defended his ground as well.

This is what people like about Sarah Palin. It's one thing to move on and accept that the American people made their voice heard, as she indicates she's happy to do. To do so does not require acquiescing to the media's suggestion that your message was unseemly, racist, or hateful. Good on her.