DP: I’m going to share with you now something that I’ve been doing during breaks and after and before the shows at the conventions, and that is people are coming over and interviewing me. So you’ll get a chance now, I have no idea what is about to transpire here, but Swedish television, Channel 4, Swedish 4 has come over. They’re the biggest commercial TV in Sweden, and they’re going to ask me some questions. So I have given, we have to mics here, he has his mic, Bertl Califors, did I pronounce your name correctly?
Swede: Not so bad.
DP: Well, I want the right way. What is the right way.
Swede: (I have no idea)
DP: I could do that (I still have no idea). Not bad?
Swede: Not bad.
DP: All right. Okay, anyway, they’re going to interview me for Swedish TV, so we’ll share it with you and go away, sir, anything you’d like to ask.
Swede: Yeah, first of all, how do you find this convention?
DP: Well, first of all, it was completely taken by surprise by the hurricane issue, so the first day was essentially canceled. That could have been very depressing, but I think that the naming of Sarah Palin has been so energizing that I think that the people are very excited about the final three days.
Swede: Why do you think the convention was so afraid to upset anybody about Gustav? I mean, they really tried to avoid all the problems that you had with Katrina. That was the impression I got.
DP: Well, I will give you an opinion that you may not hear often. I believe that, I said yesterday that Katrina did to America what World War I did to Europeans. It made many Europeans afraid of all fighting, World War I did that, afraid of all nationalism. And I think that Katrina made a lot of Americans afraid of all hurricanes. And so in effect, I think it’s overreaction. But that is the way it is, and in order to show complete solidarity with the people of Mississippi and Louisiana, that was what Senator McCain thought was appropriate.
Swede: Was that the right thing to do?
DP: Unfortunately, and mind, this is my opinion, this is not an official Republican Party opinion, Dennis Prager’s opinion? It was the right thing to do given the politics of our time. I do not believe that you cancel a convention day, generally speaking, because of a hurricane. Americans have had hurricanes throughout its history, but Katrina has changed the rules.
Swede: And talking about Sarah Palin, I mean do you think she was vetted enough? Was that a good choice?
DP: I think it was a great choice as it happens, and I will tell you, I think your viewers would find this interesting, I said on my radio show on Friday, on Friday when it just happened, it happened while I was broadcasting, I am a Republican. This is the most excited I have been about an American politician since Ronald Reagan. And I continue to feel that way.
Swede: Why is that?
DP: I believe that she has the traits that Ronald Reagan did – very real, very identifiable with, I feel that I know her already, and I love her values. Her values are a deep belief in America, a deep belief in the American value system, and comes from a very “normal” background. So I have, I am very excited, and I think I am typical of many, many Americans.
Swede: Were you surprised when it was disclosed that her unwed daughter, Bristol, was pregnant?
DP: Was I surprised? I can’t say I was surprised, because I never gave one minute’s thought to whether any of her children were pregnant. It’s none of my business. I would never report on a Democratic candidate’s family, and I don’t expect the Democrats and liberal press to report on her family. But unfortunately, the mainstream American press does not live by the rules that I live when I broadcast. I have no interest in reporting on the children of candidates.
Swede: But isn’t it interesting, I mean, if you have a mother who is preaching abstinence, and the facts is that people believe in abstinence, they are 60% more likely to become pregnant, isn’t it relevant then that…she became pregnant, and she’s second year in high school.
DP: Well, I don’t accept that statistic that you’re 60% more likely to become pregnant if you are told about abstention rather than have sexual education, and I will give you one simple fact. Throughout American history, abstention was what was taught. Sex education in classrooms is very new. It started with my generation, and that’s when the great burst in pregnancy took place. People do what society expects them to do. Look, a hundred years ago in Sweden, when Sweden was much more Lutheran, then kids did not have as much sex as they do today in Sweden. The values of a society shape the sexual behavior of children, not the teaching of abstention. Throughout history abstention was taught, and most teenagers did abstain.
Swede: And you think that’s an efficient method?
DP: I think values are the single best method of teaching everything in life, whether it is sex or anything else. I am a big values, believer in values. I think that when you give children condoms, you are saying to them you expect them to use them. It’s like giving people needles. I think that you are saying look, we don’t want you to do it…here is an example. Let us say you, sir, are you married?
Swede: Yeah.
DP: I won’t ask you any more personal questions. You’re married. Let us say when you left to come to America, your wife said to you (still not going to get the name right), have I got that right? (Swedish first name), here are some condoms. I don’t want you to have an affair with a woman in America, but if you do, I want you to be very safe. Here are condoms. I think that the message you would get is not just safety, but here is a green light to have sex.
Swede: I’ll have to check with her.
DP: Okay, check with her. Yes. I would…(laughing) when I come to Stockholm, I will ask her what she thinks of that idea.
Swede: And what about having children outside wedlock? Is that a problem for conservatives?
DP: Yes, it is. Children out of wedlock is a problem for conservatives. I would hope it’s a problem for liberals, too. If it’s not a problem for liberals, we’re really in bad shape in America. Yes, it is a problem.
Swede: Okay, but you don’t think that there are any other revelations that we will get about the Governor from Alaska? I mean, did he really vet her enough? I mean, we have these…
DP: Apparently he knew.
Swede: Troopergate and this…
DP: Well no, the trooper thing…
Swede: And she was a member of this Alaskan Independence Party for a while.
DP: Yeah, I don’t know about the…that’s the last one I still have to do my own research. I don’t know enough. I think she was vetted substantially. However, as I said on my radio show, the mainstream media, which is liberal, has a particular dislike for two groups – blacks who are conservative, and women who are conservative, because they are traitors. They are deemed as traitors to their race or to their sex. So she will really, really be vetted, so to speak, by the press in a way that a liberal woman would not be.
Swede: Okay, it was nice meeting you.
DP: Goodbye, see you in Stockholm. Thank you, sir. Thank you very, very much.
End of interview.