Ferraro: Palin Not Finishing Term ' A Bad Move'

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," July 3, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS GUEST HOST: We have been telling you about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's plans to leave the governor's mansion.

Joining us now by phone is the first woman to run on a major party ticket for the White House, four vice presidential candidate and our guest now, Geraldine Ferraro. Ms. Ferraro, thank you for joining us tonight.

I want to start by asking you, do you think as a female candidate in such a high-profile office that she was treated differently?

GERALDINE FERRARO, D - FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think some of the press treated her differently, yes.

I think if they treated her, there were critical with her on issues, on how she responded to questions on policy, that is how they would treat any man. I think that that's fine. But I think when they went into how she dressed or what her kids were doing or not doing, just like I was very critical of how they treated Hillary Clinton during the course of the campaign. Yes, I do think that it is better than it was like when I ran in 1984, but it is not much better. And hopefully, after the criticism that all of us have leveled on the treatment of these candidates, hopefully it will be better for the next person.

BREAM: And she seems like a pretty tough cookie. We do not know what exactly will happen to her, but do you predict she will be back on the stage in 2012? Do you think she's going to wait a little bit longer?

FERRARO: The thing about it is I think she made a bad move. I think not running for reelection is one thing. People understand that, because if people want to run for president, very, very frequently they do not run for a new term. They say, OK, I will spend my time doing what I need to do for the next two years, running around and raising money and seeing people throughout the country. They can be on a listening tour.

But to not complete her term that she was just elected to two and a half years ago, not complete it for the year and a half I think is a very bad decision.

She is claiming that she did it because the legislature was not allowing her to get things done for the state of Alaska. Do you how many states are complaining because of the economic condition being what it is, and these governors are just having a terrible, terrible time making ends meet and balancing the budget.

And with her too, because oil revenues have been down considerably in the last year. And so, evidently, the state was having real problems.

Bad business to walk away from a problem. How do you do it? If you get to the President of the United States stuck with a problem that you moved into the office with. And god knows what comes next. You can't just walk away from the job. So I think that was a bad move.

I think discussing this only with her family was not such a good idea, because people do not like to be criticized. I personally think she won as far as David Letterman was concerned. She got him to apologize. He was out of line. She won on that.

But you get on a national campaign, and they are going to be terribly critical. I know that from experience. And it will be bad.

She said just not in that interview with Greta, if you cannot deal with it, then you should not run for public office. That is part of what goes on.

Is it right? No. But will it happen? Absolutely. If she cannot take it up in Alaska, what is she going do when she cannot take it on a national level?

So she has put herself into a position where for the next year and a half she could very well have gone as the governor of Alaska to wherever she wanted to go. She is in a different place now. She will not be invited to various places where negotiations are going on.

They will talk to her as governor but there will not talk to her as Sarah Palin who may or may not run for president. There is a real difference in how you are treated when you are in office and when you're out of office.

And so I just think she made a very, very bad move.

BREAM: Geraldine Ferraro, the woman who laid the groundwork for what we saw Governor Sarah Palin be able to do on the national stage last year. Thank you for your time tonight.

FERRARO: No problem, Shannon. Goodnight, now.

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