Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will assert on Monday night that the early returns on President Obama's economic policies validate the concerns she raised while on the campaign trail - mainly that his administration is creeping toward socialism.
In a pre-taped interview with Sean Hannity, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate will claim political vindication. "We told ya so," she will say, when asked if Obama was effectively spreading the nation's wealth.
"That's how I feel," she will add. "I feel like, and I think that more and more constituents are going to open their eyes now and open their ears to hear what is really going on and realize ok, maybe we didn't have a good way of expressing that, or articulating that message of 'here is what America could potentially become if we grow government to such a degree that we cannot pay for it and we have to borrow money from other countries, some countries that don't necessarily like America.'"
The interview, a transcript of which was leaked to the Drudge Report, represents some of the most public political posturing from Palin since the end of the '08 election.
In it, Palin expresses her disappointment and frustration with the Obama administration for increasing domestic spending and accelerating growth of government.
"It's expanding at such a large degree that if Americans aren't paying attention, unfortunately our country could evolve into something that we do not even recognize," she says in the interview.
In private, Republican strategist have urged her to avoid the national spotlight and to concentrate on state issues. They think she should wait to launch another national campaign until her political resume has grown. But Palin has proven unable to avoid that national spotlight, at least in part because of family matters.
On Monday, the Alaska Republican will hit on an issue that is all business -- and one of the fronts on which Obama appears to be a bit vulnerable.
"When you consider that the federal government is about eleven trillion dollars in debt, and we're borrowing more to spend more," Palin says in the interview "it defies any sensible economic policy that any of us ever learned through college. It defies economy practices and principles that tell ya, you gotta quit digging that hole when you are in that financial hole."