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Rosie O'Donnell would like to have a beer with Sarah Palin

By April MacIntyre Nov 15, 2008, 23:07 GMT

A new chat show will soon be on the air for host Rosie O'Donnell.

At last night’s Broadway opening of Billy Elliot, Rosie O’Donnell spoke for the first time since Barack Obama was elected president - expressing her excitement about his historic win and even praising the woman who could have been vice president. A beer with Palin, you betcha.- Rosie O'Donnell - True Colors Tour at Bank Atlantic Center - Bank Atlantic Center - Sunrise, FL © A. Gilbert / PR Photos

A beer with Palin, you betcha.- Rosie O'Donnell - True Colors Tour at Bank Atlantic Center - Bank Atlantic Center - Sunrise, FL © A. Gilbert / PR PhotosRosie told Extra she’d like to meet Governor Sarah Palin, O’Donnell comments, “I'd like to have a beer with her. I'd like to meet her kids. She seems like a pretty nice woman. Although I have to say, I am thrilled her party did not win. [But] you got to give it to her for spunk.”

She continues, "I think I probably would like her [Palin] if I met her....She had an amazing life for herself and her family in Alaska. Very successful. Before you knew it, she was the most famous person in the country…” As nice as Palin might seem, O’Donnell exclaims, “If [John] McCain won…I would be in the depression unit of the ICU.”

About Obama’s victory, O’Donnell says, “It's really beyond what I had hoped could happen…I can’t really recall feeling the way that I did about our country. About the promise of democracy….Seems as though the last eight years have been nothing but a dark, funky depression...Hope is possible and change is here. Way to go America!"

Reacting to the passing of Proposition 8, which overrides the decision to recognize same- sex marriages in California, O’Donnell comments, “I was married four years and I was annulled three years ago, so for me this fight is not new. Prop 8 is nothing new for me. This has been a long journey...and eventually the world will catch up."

Rosie O’Donnell’s primetime show, Rosie Live, airs on NBC on November 26th.