Palin to CNN: I'm Open to 2016 Run

Sarah Palin left open the possibility of allowing her name to go forward in a brokered Republican convention during an interview immediately after she had voted in Tuesday’s Alaska caucuses.

“I wouldn’t close that door,” she told CNN”s Paul Buchanan as he cornered her in the caucus hall in her home town of Wasilla. “My plan is to be at that convention.”

Palin also refused to rule out a run for the presidency in 2016.

“Anything is possible for an American and I don’t discount any idea or plan that isn’t in my control. Anything is possible. I would seriously consider whatever I could do to help our country to put things back on the right track."

Palin said she was surprised to see Buchanan as she and husband Todd went to vote. “You’re a lucky dude,” she told the reporter.

Palin would not say who she had voted for, but said she wanted the Republican battle for the nomination to continue – and even called for more debates to follow the 20 that the candidates have already engaged in.

“I believe that competition makes all of our candidates better,” she said. “There are five men running for president and Barack Obama is the worst choice.

“I want to see more debate to see who can bust through the Orwellian Obama rhetoric and pandering,” added the 2008 vice-presidential candidate. “Whoever best can bust through that rhetoric and express their ideas with solutions to get our economy back on the right track, that’s the nominee I want to see forwarded.”

Later, in an interview with a Fox News host, Palin said she had cast her ballot for “the cheerful one” — Newt Gingrich.

“I knew you [were] going to ask me that and I am just the poorest politician-sounding pundit. It’s tough for me to spin out of a question like that when it comes from a Fox reporter. If it comes from another reporter, I can spin out of it but since it came from you, I will tell you,” Palin told Neil Cavuto on the Fox Business Network, Politico reported.

“Who can best bust through that radical left’s kind of dispensation and desire to mistreat those who are defenseless, mistreat those who perhaps have some disadvantages by making them more beholden to government? Who best can contrast themselves from that?” she continued. “I thought who best could do that [and] my own personal opinion is, the cheerful one, is Newt Gingrich. I have appreciated what he has stood for, stood boldly for.”

Earlier, when asked by CNN what the “number-one issue” is for the election, Palin said it was a combination of the economy and military needs.

She also showed her support for Rush Limbaugh who has been under fire after labeling a woman a “slut” and a “prostitute” for calling for insurances to pay for contraceptives.

“It is hypocrisy for Rush Limbaugh to be forced to apologize for exercising his First Amendment rights when the same isn’t applied to the leftist radicals who say such horrible things about the handicapped, about women, about the defenseless.”