Sweetheart of the Heartland

Reporting for the American Spectator:

LEBANON, Ohio -- Janet Stefanopoulos drove 30 miles from Cincinnati to attend yesterday's presidential campaign rally here, but it wasn't the man at the top of the ticket that brought her out on a rainy Tuesday morning.
"I want to see Sarah Palin," said Stefanopoulos, a retired nurse and staunch Republican who had favored Fred Thompson in the primaries. "I was a lukewarm McCain [supporter] until he picked her. I mean, I would have voted for him, but now I'm fired up.... She is what I would like my children to be."
Similar sentiments were seen and heard all along Broadway Street, where a crowd of more than 5,000 filled the block between Mulberry and Main streets in front of the Golden Lamb Hotel, which boasts of having hosted 12 presidents, from John Quincy Adams to George W. Bush.

Please read the whole thing. Thanks to all the nice folks in Lebananon, including Warren County GOP Chairman Don Prince. Here's a selection of photos from the rally.

You might also want to read "Shaking their confidence daily," about the impact of the Palin pick on Democrats' morale.

UPDATE: Notice that this Associated Press story is datelined "Lebanon, Ohio," without managing to give readers any idea of what went on at Tuesday's rally. It's as if the reporter had been sent out to cover a football game and failed to include the final score or describe any of the plays.

UPDATE II: Daniel Ruwe attended the rally and notes:

Judging from the comments of the people in line, all ten thousand people were there to see Sarah Palin. . . . A stall selling t-shirts sold McCain-Palin shirts for twenty dollars -- but shirts with just McCain went for only fifteen.

Which is to say, the free-market shows that adding Palin to the ticket produced a 25% increase in the value of T-shirts.