In case you missed the video of Sarah Palin on Sean Hannity’s show last night, which Allah posted in “Quotes of the Day,” Palin suggested in that appearance that August or September might be the right time to launch a campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.

“You know, August and September, you do have to start laying out a plan if you are to be one to throw your hat in the ring, so that’s basically the time frame,” Palin told Sean Hannity during an appearance Wednesday night on Fox News. …

Asked about her recent comment to Newsweek that she could win a general election, Palin said that while does believe that she could beat President Obama, she would also consider supporting another Republican candidate — if she felt that he or she met certain requirements that she looks for in a national leader.

“I’m not wholly confident that we have that field set yet, that that one individual is in the field,” Palin said. “So I’m still thinking about being one that would offer myself up in the name of service, knowing confidently that I have those commonsense, fiscally conservative, pro-private sector experience and ideas that can be put to good work for this country.”

Those provocative comments came amid her smart commentary on the debt ceiling debate, in which the former Alaska governor had harsh words to say about President Barack Obama’s executive ability, most notably, his seeming inability to prioritize properly.

“We cannot afford to back off and hand him a white flag saying, ‘Here Mr. President, we trust you, you take over, you do it’ because our president has failed in that area,” she continued.

And though there’s blame to go around, for Palin, the buck stops with Obama.

“Our president … essentially suggested the other day that he’s not able to prioritize, as the chief executive of our nation he can’t prioritize,” she stated.

Palin always appears to me in her best light in these Skype-like sessions on Fox, with an Alaskan backdrop behind her. While she wouldn’t have to fight the debt ceiling fight, her willingness to repeatedly comment on what has dominated headlines for weeks — and the way in which she has done it — stacks up well against the approaches of the other top-tier candidates and potential candidates. When she said she didn’t think it was “necessarily the case” that economic catastrophe would result if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, she didn’t sound nearly as firm as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) did just days ago, when Bachmann flat-out said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was “wrong … wrong … wrong” about the threat of default … but neither did she seek to avoid the issue entirely, as Mitt Romney seems to be doing (with the possible exception of a Twitter tiff between his camp and Obama’s). As a result, she came across as highly in touch but still slightly removed from the fray, somehow simultaneously down-to-earth and sophisticated. Again, she always seems at her best against that Alaskan backdrop.

My favorite quote comes early in the interview: “Our country was built on a strong foundation of reward for work ethic and development of our natural resources and we have the complete opposite direction under Obama with both those cornerstones.”

Nothing better than when a politician brings it back to basics. And, I know, that’s what Palin is known for, but I thought she did it exceptionally well last night.