Sarah Palin Proud of Son's Choice to Fight in Iraq War

The Alaska governor - who has captured the media spotlight of after accepting the Republican Party's nomination for vice president – spoke yesterday from Alaska in her first sit-down interview.

Palin, 44, remarked on the departure of Track, her 19-year old son amid an extended discussion of political issues including global warming, foreign policy and energy.

"Today is the day that I send my first born, my son, my teenage son overseas...to fight for our country, for democracy for our freedoms," Palin said according to excerpts from an ABC video of the interview.

"I am so proud of his independent and strong decision he has made, what he decided to do and serving for the right reasons and serving something greater than himself and not choosing a real easy path where he could be more comfortable and certainly safer," she said.

Track is the oldest of the governor's five children. Her daughter Bristol, 17, is probably the most well-known because of the controversy which erupted when her mother announced recently through the campaign that the teenager is five months pregnant by her boyfriend.

Palin was nominated as the Republican Party's candidate for vice president on August 29. She is also the first woman in her party to be chosen as a candidate for the position.

During the interview, Gibson asked if she can say she has the ability and experience to be not just vice president but perhaps president of the United States.

"I'm ready," she said, adding that she didn't hesitate to take the charge and she "didn't blink," when the opportunity came.

Interest in Palin's candidacy has generated the largest web searches for political figures in three years, surpassing those for Barack Obama, John McCain and Joe Biden her Democratic counterpart, according to Bill Tancer, the general manager of research at Hitwise. She is also the former Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, where she once won the Miss Wasilla title.