Ms. Palin used the interview to reinforce the muscular foreign policy of Mr. McCain, saying she would not second-guess any military action Israel deems necessary to protect itself, warning Russia away from aggression against its neighbors and generally supporting President Bush’s approach to combating terrorism. But she also put some distance between the administration and the McCain team. “There have been blunders along the way,” she said.

Image I have the confidence, Gov. Sarah Palin said Thursday. Credit... Donna Svennevik/ABC, via Getty Images

Ms. Palin came into the interview with heavy preparation from Mr. McCain’s top political and policy advisers, many of whom accompanied her home to Alaska, where Mr. Gibson will be holding a series of question-and-answer sessions with her through Friday afternoon.

The McCain campaign has kept Ms. Palin away from reporters and off the interview circuit traditionally traveled by vice-presidential nominees, but was under pressure to place her before a nationally recognized journalist. There were conflicting signals from the campaign about whether it would consider Mr. Gibson’s interview session the first of many or one of the few.

In choosing Mr. Gibson as Ms. Palin’s interlocutor, the campaign was going with a journalist known for having a mild manner but the gravitas to be taken seriously.

But the interview was hardly gentle, as Mr. Gibson pressed Ms. Palin for direct answers to some of the complicated foreign policy and national security issues facing the next administration.

Ms. Palin said the United States could not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. As Americans, she said, “we do not have to stand for that.” She advocated a new round of sanctions.

But Mr. Gibson noted that threats of new sanctions had failed to stem Iran’s nuclear program so far and asked Ms. Palin whether she would back Israel if it were to seek to eliminate Iran’s facilities militarily.