ANCHORAGE, Ala. — Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and former Alaskan governor, recently told Fox News that during the 2008 presidential campaign she was precluded from broaching certain topics by McCain Campaign “elitists,” including any matters “involving actual words.”

“There I am, ready to speak on abortion to a group of girls in Kenosha, Wisconsin,” started Palin, “and before I know it, one of McCain’s top advisers approaches me and says it’s best if I, ya’ know, don’t talk. Not about abortion, politics, or – quite honestly – anything. He literally told me to smile at the cameras and look ‘not dumb.’ Gee golly was that a wake-up call.”

Palin said the GOP’s first attempts to shush her occurred when McCain campaigners asked that she not publically discuss Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayers, two contentious ideological figures who allegedly have had prior ties to then-Sen. Obama.  Palin also noted that she wasn’t permitted to talk about “Obama’s lack of knowledge” or “job inexperience.”  “The brainiacs in the GOP machine,” explained Palin, “insisted that the media would eat us alive if we brought up these things [about Obama]. And I tell ya, it drove me up the wall that they wouldn’t let this articulant [sic] weather gal give the American public a piece of her mind.”

When Palin’s speaking limitations eventually became absolute in Kenosha, Wis., she realized she had to take a stand. “Nobody puts a kibosh on this pretty ol’ muzzle,” Palin remarked.

So, despite a formal prohibition on uttering words in front of human beings or animals, Palin continued to speak for the McCain campaign and even debated Joe Biden on a national stage, where she vindicated certain GOP members’ concerns that she left something to be desired in the intelligence department.

Despite criticism about her public-speaking prowess, though, Palin believes she made the right decision to “say actual words” and “spread a message of politics and stuff” during the course of the campaign.