Sarah Palin talks waterboarding, guns at NRA convention

If you've ever wondered how U.S. counterterrorism policy would differ if former Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, were president, you now have at least part of your answer.

During a speech at the National Rifle Association's annual convention on Saturday, Palin, also the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, criticized President Obama's administration for treating suspected terrorists too gingerly.

Discussing "enemies who would utterly annihilate America - they who'd obviously have information on plots," she said, "Oh, but you can't offend them, can't make them feel uncomfortable, not even a smidgen."

"Well, if I were in charge," she continued, as the audience erupted in applause at the prospect, "they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists."

She criticized the administration for pursuing a national security strategy that, in her estimation, pokes "our allies in the eye, calling them adversaries, instead of putting the fear of God in our enemies."

Palin also rallied the pro-gun audience to continue protecting their right to bear arms, saying their efforts are "needed now more than ever because every day, we are seeing more and more efforts to strip away our Second Amendment rights."

She warned that the president and his administration were trying to enact gun control to keep a firmer grip on the American people, and she urged the roughly 13,000 NRA faithful in the crowd to fight back.

"If you control oil, you control an economy. If you control money, you control commerce," she said. "But if you control arms, you control the people, and that is what they're trying to do."