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In an interview with People Magazine, Gov. Sarah Palin was asked, “Do you think you're intellectual?”

SP: Yessss. And you have to be up on not only current events, but you have to understand the foundation of the issues that you're working on as a governor. I had to do the same thing as a mayor. So it is not just current events but it's much more in-depth than that to understand how, in the case of me being governor, how did our state get to the position that we are in order for a decision to have to be made. You can't just go on what is presented you. You have to know the background, you have to know the players involved before you make a policy call. So, um, it's uh, it's a good job, it's a tough job and it's a very, very serious job. And no. You don't get to be a governor by being –

TP (Todd Palin) – going with the wind.

SP: Yeah definitely. You don't just go with the flow and take a political pulse on policy. You have to go with what the foundational knowledge is that you have on issues in front of you and you have to put the people you are serving, put them first. You put them before partisanship you put them before special interests. That's how you make decisions as governor. 

People Magazine: How do you get that knowledge?

SP: I'm a voracious reader, always have been. I appreciate a lot of information. I think that comes from growing up in a family of schoolteachers also where reading and seizing educationa opportunities was top on my parents' agenda. That was instilled in me. 

People Magazine: What do you like to read?

SP: Autobiographies, historical pieces – really anything and everything. Besides the kids and sports, reading is my favorite thing to do. 

People Magazine: What are you reading now?

SP: I'm reading, heh-heh, a lot of briefing papers on a lot of issues that are in front of us in this campaign.

People Magazine: What about for fun?

SP: Do we consider The Looming Tower something that was just for fun? That's what I've been reading on the airplane. It's about 9/11. If I'm going to read something, for the most part, it's something beneficial.

People Magazine: Some national issues are different than what you've focused on in Alaska. Now that you've been at this national campaign for a while, are there areas you've discovered you'd like to study up on more?

SP: The overall mission here in a national campaign is the same mission that I was on in a state campaign and in my job serving the state and before that, in a local city campaign and in my job serving a community and that is making sure that the people who hire you are going to be put first in all the decisions that you make. Overall, it's the same mission that I'm on and in this case also it's supporting I think the perfect running mate, someone who is ready to lead our country through the economic crisis that we're in right now, lead us into victory in these wars that we're fighting. So same mission, that being serving the people who will hire us.