Washington, Nov.23 (ANI): Former Republican presidential candidate John McCain has said that he liked reading former running mate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s autobiography — “Going Rogue” on the sidelines of a security forum in Halifax, Politico reports.

“I enjoyed the book and she and I are dear friends. I talked to her on the phone yesterday. We got along fine,” said McCain….

Asked a question on the tensions that prevailed during last year’s Republican presidential campaign, McCain said: “In campaigns there’s always tension. Outside of combat, it’s the most tense situation. There’s always differences that arise, but it’s no big deal.”

Palin, on the other hand, has gone on record as saying that she was so micromanaged by the McCain campaign that she couldn’t be herself.

Appearing on the Oprah Winfrey show recently, Palin said: “They were just doing what the staff was hired to do, which I guess was to write the script, though my team, the vice-presidential candidate’s team, my handlers if you will, we never did really find that script, so we couldn’t really stay on the script.”

Palin also flatly rejected the notion that she was primarily responsible for the Republican loss in last year’s presidential elections.

“I don’t think that I was to blame for losing the race,” the Washington Times quoted her, as saying.During her over hour-long sit-down with the US talk-show queen, the de facto leader of the Republican Party categorically blamed her handlers, staff, the media — even running mate Senator John McCain — for the campaign’s missteps and mistakes last fall.

She played the role of a “victim” to the tee.

Commenting on the brouhaha over her wardrobe, she said: “It was, practically speaking, ‘Oh, good,’ because I don’t like to shop and that’s going to be one less thing for me to have to worry about, never thinking that it was going to be a big controversy.”

On her decision to step down as governor, she said: “There were so many opposition researchers up there that were — some of them by the Obama camp — who were sent up there to start the FOIA requests and the ethics violations charges.”

Her teenage daughter’s pregnancy, she said the McCain camp put out a statement without her approval.

She said: “I was surprised, too, that we didn’t handle that issue, that challenge, better. … ”

Palin, now one of the most famous women in America, was poised and pleasant throughout, smiling often, her perfect teeth almost impossibly white. She walked onstage to applause, dressed in a black pencil skirt with a teal-green jacket, black stockings and black high heels, her long brown hair tousled and tinted with blond highlights — along with those famous frameless designer glasses.

“How easy it for a man, they’re wearing the same thing over and over again. … Male candidates have it a little bit easier in that arena,” she said.

Her disgruntlement continued straight to election night, when McCain, she said, refused to allow his running mate to deliver her own concession speech at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix.

Asked if she was disappointed, she said: “Disappointed that the explanation that was given why I wouldn’t be able to speak was A, that V.P. candidates never give a speech on an election night, I knew that was false, I’ve seen it happen. … But disappointed, too, that we didn’t take one last opportunity to remind Americans that all of us together need to be able to move forward together. United, we will stand, and that’s what I wanted to talk about.” (ANI)