Seventeen minutes with Lauer, with the most interesting stuff right up front in chitchat about why they lost and her thwarted plan to introduce McCain’s concession speech and “brag him up.” Note the very first reason she lists for their defeat — before Obama’s money advantage, before even the anti-Republican tide. (She adds a fourth, the financial crisis, later on.) If you think she’s going to jettison her position on amnesty now that she’s free of Team Maverick’s clutches, I think you’re kidding yourself.

No talk here about 2012 but she and Greta covered that last night. The video’s available at the FNC website but it runs 45 minutes so stick with the transcript instead. The part in the very middle, about abortion as the ultimate wedge issue among feminists, is worthwhile, as is what she has to say near the end about the McCain camp having researched her votes as a Wasilla city council member 15 years ago before she was asked to join the ticket. So much for “She wasn’t vetted.” Exit question: Whom does she have in mind here? Hmmm.