Anyone wanting a sense of how Sarah Palin will handle herself in interviews should take a look at this long C-SPAN interview from February (in three parts: first, second, third). (H/T Marc Ambinder)

It is of course somewhat Alaska-focused but it’s quite substantive on policy questions, including those that go well beyond state politics. She talks about changes in Medicaid rules, about unfunded mandates, about energy policy, tax policy, environmental issues, and more.

For a little sense of her style, here is an answer to the question of who counts as wealthy, which John McCain answered rather clumsily last month. Palin did better:

Q: Part of the debate governor has been where do you define middle or upper income families. Is it $75,000, is it $50,000 is it $100,000 or above? Where would you draw the line between middle and upper income when it comes to taxes?
A: Well that’s a great question because it is so subjective. For us in Alaska the cost of living is quite high so someone making maybe $80,000 in Alaska maybe isn’t categorized as wealthy, but maybe that same family making that income in a state where the cost of living is much lower that would be considered wealthy. So that’s a tough call but my general philosophy is one of being fiscally conservative and not wanting to see the federal government take more and more of individuals’ paychecks.

Asked about the possibility of serving as McCain’s running mate, she dodges in the usual way and ends up saying “we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it” and making a case for a governor on the ticket.

It’s a bit long, but impressive and worth your while.