"[S]he has a very different political direction than I do"

A lot of people compare you and Sarah Palin as conservative Christian candidates. What separates you two? What makes you different?

Well, it’s hard for me to say what’s different because I don’t know. I don’t know how people make the comparison. We were both governors, we certainly are both pretty clear in our expression of faith, so yeah, we share those things. But other than those things, I’m not sure where the comparisons are. We’re both Republican, we’re both pro-life—there are a lot of similarities that way—but she has a very different political direction than I do. I’m not sure of her future politically, and I’m really not sure of mine either.

What factors will you consider in deciding whether to run for president in 2012?

I think the key factors will be, one, after the midterm elections, whether there is a real sense of frustration with the current administration and a willingness to look for someone else, for one thing. I’d want to know there was real, solid, strong support for me within the Republican Party for a primary, and I can’t even consider running again without the level of financial support that a person needs to carry it all the way. To hear a person tell me, “Gee, I’d really like to see you run,” is great. But if you can’t raise tens of millions of dollars to start and hundreds of millions of dollars to compete, as crazy and as obscene as that is, it really doesn’t matter.