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People were lining up early in Grand Rapids for their chance to meet former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. . . .People lining up hours before the book signing? "Packed house"? Gee, you'd almost get the idea that Palin was popular or something.
She's kicking off her book signing tour Wednesday at Woodland Mall in Grand Rapids.
It is expected to be a packed house at Barnes and Noble in Grand Rapids and if you want in on the action workers say you'll want to be there early.
Meanwhile, William Jacobson notes that flying pigs have been spotted near the offices of Media Matters.
Palin fans in Indiana and Ohio might want to grab your sleeping bags and start camping out now in front of bookstores. Hoosiers will get their dose of Palin-mania Thursday when Sarah comes to in Fort Wayne (noon) and Noblesville (6 p.m.), while Buckeyes can catch the fever Friday in Cincinnati (noon) and Columbus (6 p.m.).
UPDATE: Detroit Free Press reports that 500 camped out overnight in the freezing cold, and there were 1,500 in line at 7 a.m. when the Barnes & Noble staff started handing out wrist bands. ("What is this, a Phish concert?") Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:
Most authors would be pleased to get 1500 people in total to show up for a book tour. (Heck, most authors would kill to sell 1500 books.) Even the Lord of the Rings openings didn’t attract 1500 fans for a 7 am show. Star Wars didn’t get this kind of response.Her popularity drives the media crazy.
UPDATE II: The Blogprof observes that the MSM seem reluctant to show photos of the crowd in Grand Rapids. Fortunately, my Twitter friend Insider7 is on the scene:
But . . . Palin is so unpopular! The MSM have polls that say so! In related news, Dan Riehl says he wouldn't camp out all night to date an 18-year-old cheerleader. (But they'd camp out for a date with Dan.)
But all my liberal friends say Palin is bad. Really bad. And "real" republicans like David Brooks and David Frum say so too. What is going on?
ReplyDeleteHow much do you get paid for this?
ReplyDeleteNow, that I think about it, your entire career has pointed you toward Carnival Barker. And, now, in grand service to medicority, you get to realize that dream. How nice.
Oh, and self-linking aside, polls consistently show Sarah is NOT popular, even with Republicans.
God, I hope you nominate this woman
Riehl has Obama on Palin:
ReplyDelete"Put your seatbelt on, sharp turn here," [Chris Reid of CBS] said. "Sarah Palin has given you a 'four so' far as president on a 10-point scale. Is that a fair assessment?"
"Well look," the president answered. "I have to say, obviously, Mrs. Palin is out there selling books right now, and I think she'll do very well. ... She and I have different political philosophies, and it's probably not the person I look to do see how our administration is doing."
That's okay Lou, I would not vote for you either.
ReplyDeleteThe gals gang up on Sarah Palin. Sounds like stuff my daughter tells me about the girls in middle school.
ReplyDeleteGirls can be really mean. "Work of Friction"? A bit slanted?
Ana Marie Cox says Sarah Palin is peaking with Oprah and is finished. Remember that prediction.
The president's right. Governor Palin shouldn't have given him a four.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the scale of 1 to 10 doesn't provide for grades of zero or below.
Ha. Every time she does something big they'll say she has "peaked." At some point I guess they'll have to be right, since even a broken clock is right twice a day...
ReplyDeleteI went back to Woodland Mall for lunch. The crowd had changed slightly. Parking is a zoo. This time I observed there are four shows like layers of an onion: 1) There's Sarah who's not there yet. 2) Then there are guys like me with the wristband who have been in line all day. 3) Camping out in a position of Great Honor are the Network Talents. I recognized Andrea Mitchell, but I did not recognize the statuesque brunette (who might induce me to watch network TV again). She was being interviewed by Access Hollywood. I don't know whether this means she was From Access Hollywood or whether she's someone Access Hollywood thinks important enough to interview. 4) Then there's the fourth show, the various acolites and minor deities attending to the On Air Talents. I think they were the most interesting people there.
ReplyDeleteIf you see someone dressed in a black dress coat, s/he's probably from New York and is attending to some broadcast network's business. Conversely, if you see a kid in a Cornerstone University sweatshirt, s/he's been there since Oh Dark Thirty this morning.
Mrs. Palin is friendly and personal. She does retail politics flawlessly.
ReplyDeleteWhen I got back to the Mall to stand in line again, the line extended outside. (A mall guard told me the fire marshal said there were too many of us to wait inside.)
After a few minutes a pleasant girl from channel 6 in Lansing came by with cameraman in tow and interviewed people behind me. Others kept walking through ruining the shot and I heard the same line repeated 6 times.
When Mrs. Palin arrived, she gave a short speech (couldn't hear much) and a few minutes later the line began to move. The mall seemed warmer than it had earlier in the day.
Andrea Mitchell was camped out at the MSNBC spot directly in front of the Barnes & Noble entrance with that statuesque brunette I'd noticed at lunch. (See Rule 5.) I suppose that I'll have to actually watch that channel to find out who that is. Ms. Mitchell looked tired; probably a long day for her, too.
My cell rang. It was a couple journalism students from Cornerstone University. (My wife had given their prof my number.) They have a Wednesday night class. You could tell by the navy blue "Truth Seekers" tee shirts in a Star Wars font. They came over and we had a nice chat about Mrs. Palin's star power. "Look at this crowd. It's a rock star crowd. She's a Political Elvis"
Their prof owns a small newspaper a couple towns over. This reminded me that newspapers are hurting financially. Mrs. Palin's ability to make old-media newsies irrelevant is an existential threat every bit as real as Craigslist classified advertising.
These students went away and the line slowly wound its way toward the Barnes & Noble door. Another Cornerstone student came around holding a big foam core board and a few Sharpies. They were collecting well-wishes for Mrs. Palin. I had to sign it.
Eventually, we got into the bookstore. The clerks know me from the Thursday writers' group. One called, "It's not Thursday." and we laughed. I climbed the deactivated escalators and wended a serpentine route through the stacks.
Sadly, they didn't route us through Philosophy. The teenager ahead of me pulled a book off the shelf about being a gay teenager and handed it to her dad. NTTAWWT. She and I found it a lot funnier than he did. He admitted that his Facebook account had been hacked a few days back & defaced with a lot of homoerotic stuff. I suppressed additional sniggers.
They had a big cloth scrim set up around the desk where Sarah Palin signed books.
Within this Holy of Holies were cherubim wearing Grand Rapids City Police uniforms and seraphim in plainclothes with coiled wires going into their ears. A high priestess took my books and passed them to Mrs. Palin. She said Grand Rapids was treating her well in that perky, aw-shucks way that I love so much.
I shook the hand of a rock star.
I left slowly, savoring the moment. I spoke with a guy in black suit--Someone Important with Woodland Mall. The crowd control & security was handled professionally and everything went well. His people did a great job. He thanked me back.
The crowd scene was pleasant. Conservatives are all individuals. Some of us can be odd, but everyone was friendly. I detest waiting in line, but I did enjoy the crowd. After Dan's Bake Sale, Rush remarked that the crowd left things neat & clean whereas when the same number of liberals get together they trash the place.
Outside the store the guy in line behind me had his digital SLR out. He asked me to take his picture in front of the Barnes & Noble sign.
Walking back to my car through the mall all the stores had closed and just a few clerks were finishing up for the night. It was peaceful as I carried two signed copies of Sarah Palin's book home.
Some googling identified Norah O'Donnell as the attractive brunette. You can see her picking on a little girl from Grand Rapids here. No need to tune into MSNBC. I suppose that if you can't hurt Mrs. Palin, the best you can do is find someone else to abuse.
ReplyDelete