Enthusiasm for Palin, and Echoes of 2008 Divide

Enthusiasm for Palin, and Echoes of 2008 Divide
By KATE ZERNIKE
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: November 21, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/us/politics/22palin.html?th&emc=th


FORT WAYNE, Ind. — When tickets to see Sarah Palin in Michigan ran out, people drove to her appearance here, three hours away.

Thousands had lined up overnight, starting nearly 24 hours before she was to begin signing books, camping out in 39-degree weather for a moment with the woman many see as the great conservative hope, a role model, “one of us.”

They brought their sleeping bags, their children, homemade chocolate Cheerios bars, and balloons to twist into animal shapes and hats for the crowd. And they brought their anger — about bailouts, jobs and health care.

If Sarah Palin was the star attraction, Barack Obama was a constant presence in the clutches of conversation along the lines snaking to meet her.

“It may not be this year, it may not be next year, but we’re going to take our country back,” said Sherry Haner, 54, who was standing in the cold on Wednesday outside a mall in Grand Rapids, Mich., hoping to make it into the overflow crowd after failing to get one of the 1,000 bracelets Barnes & Noble had handed out as tickets to the signing.

“My goal is to make him a half-term president,” said Chris Schwartz, waiting inside with her daughter and friends, who had pitched tents outside the previous evening to get tickets. “We need to get enough people in Congress to stop him in his tracks. One term is too long.”

Ms. Palin’s tour to promote her book, “Going Rogue,” has led to reams of publicity and high-profile television appearances, including interviews with Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters. But Ms. Palin, the former Alaska governor, has skipped the big cities authors usually visit in favor of smaller places in areas, not coincidentally, where she and Senator John McCain of Arizona performed well on last year’s Republican presidential ticket.

As the tour stopped in the political battleground states of the Midwest, on a campaign-like bus emblazoned with a billboard-size picture of her, it rekindled much of last year’s political rancor.

“He isn’t governing, he’s still campaigning,” said Joe Miller, a lab technician who had taken a vacation day to wait in line Thursday at a Meijer superstore in Fort Wayne. “He’s trying to convince us that he’s doing a good job. He hasn’t done anything, except spend money.”

Kevin Witzigreuter, 38, a Fort Wayne firefighter waiting in line next to Mr. Miller, chimed in: “And he can’t even make a simple decision about what to do in Afghanistan. We’ve got men and women fighting overseas. Either man up and fight the war to win it, or get out.”

Camped out in a mall and in the aisles of the superstore, decorated for Christmas, the fans created a carnival atmosphere, one where intense political discussions were interrupted with shouts of “Dollar burger, anybody?” by a waitress wandering out of Bar Louie.

Starbucks employees worked the line with urns of coffee, while fans passed around a life-size cutout of Ms. Palin so people could pose with her. On a table set out to receive gifts for her, someone had left red sweatshirts embroidered: “In God We Trust, and in Sarah, and in De USA.”

The crowds included stray disaffected Obama voters, as well as hard-core conspiracy theorists insisting that the president is a Communist who wants to send everyone to re-education camps.

But mostly, people were upset about ballooning budget deficits and health care.

“I was willing to give Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt, but the spending is out of control,” said Gloria Taylor, 54, as she waited in line in Grand Rapids. “It’s going to be our downfall.”

She and her sister-in-law, Robin Pintar, said they had liked Mr. Obama’s campaign promises for their transparency. But they said they were suspicious now, after a government Web site claimed jobs had been created in Congressional districts that do not exist. And they were bothered by health care proposals that seem obscured in thousands of pages of legislation.

“You hear snippets,” Ms. Pintar said, “but you don’t know what the big picture is, except the price, and that’s terrifying.”

Few people in the lines were reading Ms. Palin’s book, despite having hours to wait.

“It’s more fun talking politics with people who agree with you,” said Lucy Vigmostad, who was celebrating her 18th birthday by being first in line in Grand Rapids.

Not so much for Wyn Eck, an Obama voter who had come at 2:15 a.m. “for the spectacle.” Ms. Eck was well rewarded, with a balloon sculpture hanging around her neck with a piece of yarn from a new friend knitting in the pop-up chair next to hers.

She had tried a truth-squad approach with her new friends: When they repeated the book’s claim that Mr. McCain’s campaign had billed Ms. Palin for $50,000 in legal costs to vet her for the vice-presidential nomination, Ms. Eck pointed out that Mr. McCain had said that was not true. (The bill, he said, was for an ethics investigation involving Ms. Palin that had started before the campaign.)

“It got a little icy for a few minutes,” Ms. Eck said.

As she signed a book in Grand Rapids, Ms. Palin told one man that Michigan was “a microcosm of America.”

The places she visited were also ones where unemployment runs high, and many in the crowds that have turned out to see Ms. Palin said they had lost jobs, knew someone who had, or were working two or three jobs as they looked for one good one.

“There’s a lot of talkers out there, that’s what we’re seeing now,” said LeAnn Knudsen, 41, who had waited since 5 a.m. with her daughter, 10. “This hope and change, hope and change, what hope? And if this is change, God help us.”

As they wondered whether Ms. Palin would run for president, people here could not say exactly what they thought she would do differently to get the country out of its messes. But, they argued, she has common sense and understands how to run a family and a state. That seemed to be enough.

“I’m looking forward to her giving me hope,” said Cheryl Geraty, waiting in the rain in Grand Rapids.

That sounded something like Mr. Obama, who had effectively started his own campaign for the White House on a book tour in 2006. No, Ms. Geraty said, shaking her head and smiling, “It’s a different kind of hope.”