Sarah Palin gave her first major television interview Thursday night, as she tried to explain to the world that she’s ready to become the nation’s next vice president – despite all those who say she’s just too unqualified.

In an interview with ABC News’s Charles Gibson, the Alaska governor talked about national security issues, global warming and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Israel, and how America needs to get away from politics as usual. The interviews took place in Alaska Thursday immediately before and after a deployment ceremony for her son Track, 19, a private in the U.S. Army who will leave for Iraq later this month.

Palin said she knew immediately that she was prepared to run as vice president when John McCain offered her the job. They have shared values that make them a great team, she said.

"I answered [McCain] ‘yes,’ because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can’t blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we’re on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can’t blink," she said. "When he offered me the position as his running mate, the first thing I said to him was, ‘Do you really think that I could help the ticket? Do you really think that I could help this country? Absolutely, I want to do this with you.’"

Palin’s biggest problem may be her lack of foreign policy experience. The McCain campaign has been made fun of for responding to that criticism by saying Alaska is close to Russia, and that in the winter, an icy bridge actually forms between the two land masses. 

Conceding that she had never met a foreign leader and had only traveled to Canada and Mexico before visiting U.S. troops in Kuwait and Germany last year, Palin took a jab at Barack Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, D-DE, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a 35-year veteran of the Senate.

"We’ve got to remember what the desire is in the nation at this time," Palin said. "It is for no more politics as usual and somebody’s big, fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment where, yes, they’ve had opportunities to meet heads of state."

On energy, Palin said she and John McCain have to "agree to disagree" on some issues involving climate change and ANWR drilling. McCain and his running mate Palin agree on offshore drilling but differ on exploration in ANWR, a federally protected wildlife reserve.

"I’m going to keep working on that one with him," she said.

She tried to stress her energy credentials as the main resume-booster she brings to the table, saying "energy is the foundation of national security."

Palin stuck close to the McCain campaign’s established positions on former Soviet nations joining NATO, and the threats posed from Islamic terrorists and a nuclear Iran.

She did seem a bit confused about what exactly the Bush doctrine of preemption was, however – the concept that the United States has a right to strike another country preemptively before being attacked. 

Palin was repeatedly asked whether she believed in the right to "anticipatory self-defense" and crossing other nations’ borders to take action against threats.

"I believe that America has to exercise all options in order to stop the terrorists who are hell-bent on destroying America and our allies," she said. "We have got to have all options out there on the table."

New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, said Palin did a fantastic job given the tough questions.

"This was not a softball interview and I thought she handled herself really well," he told MSNBC.

The Washington Post notes that Palin — in earlier remarks to an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son — linked that war with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying those troops would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans." Since the war began, that connection has been rejected by the Bush administration, although militants allied with Al Qaeda are in Iraq now.

"America can never go back to that false sense of security that came before September 11, 2001," she said at the deployment ceremony.