(Vanity) Sarah Palin at the Mall of America

(Vanity) Sarah Palin at the Mall of America
grey_whiskers ^ | 12-07-2009 | grey_whiskers

Posted on 12/07/2009 1:48:33 PM PST by grey_whiskers

This is an after-action report about Sarah Palin's book signing at the Mall of America.

I went to bed last night at 9:00 PM in order to get up extra early for the signing, setting the alarm for 5:00 AM. But I couldn't sleep (excited over the signing, grief over the Vikings loss) and Freeped, falling asleep around 1:00 AM.

I awoke at 6:20 to the sound of my kids getting ready for school. RED ALERT!!!

Throwing on the clothes I had set out the night before, and grabbing a banana and a book to read in line (Federalist Papers), I dashed out to the car.

Fortunately, there was little traffic. I made it to the Mall of America and missed the turn for Highway 77 / Cedar, so I continued to 24th street and parked in the East Ramp.

When I got in, I saw a crowd already at the East Side Rotunda -- but the elevators weren't working, and the escalators were turned off. Oh, well, I though, it was not even 7:00 AM, they wouldn't have been working anyway.

When I got to the bottom, I saw they had yellow "Do not cross" tape; I stepped over and saw the line and a security guard, with other people coming from the parking garage behind me. I asked where the line started, and the security guard barked, "It starts OUTSIDE. Wait for this group to pass you and then follow them."

Anyone who tries to say that "hundreds" of people showed up is clearly mathematically challenged. I had arrived for a scheduled 12:00 noon signing at maybe ten minutes before seven, and there was already a full rope line at the rotunda, plus a line *from* the rotunda a constant two or three abreast, going up the East side of the Mall, all way past the Sears Concourse, and halfway across the North side, ending at Bath and Body Works.

The group I landed with was interesting. There were several women, including an elderly grandmother, who came from Red Wing (50 miles Southeast of the Mall of America); and a man who had driven all night from Chicago, who lived north of North Branch (mabye 50 miles North of the Mall of America). On the other hand there was the maintenance worker at Cub Foods who lived four miles away, and an older man who (in a touching spirit of hope) had told his wife that he would only be at the Mall until 7:30 ("it's only six blocks away"). I saw a number of college-age girls, and one supercilious looking guy wearing a check shirt, light jacket, and an "Obama-Biden" button. So it looked like Sarah was drawing from across all age and gender combinations.

Oh, and possibly across the ideological spectrum, too -- there was one young man with a check shirt, light jacket, and supercilious smirk who was wearing an "Obama-Biden" button on his lapel.

The conversation was subdued but happy -- I heard no griping about the length of the line. Conversation tended from discussions of radio stations (Christian and Talk Radio predominated), to the depredations of the mainstream press, and the latest occurrences on Fox News, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck. A couple people said that they preferred Minneapolis' own Jason Lewis (who has recently gone national). And a rumor started that KTLK's own Chris Baker (morning drive on the FM conservative talk station) had a team interviewing people at the mall and broadcasting their comments on the air. And most of the people I had the chance to meeet, hadn't yet read her book, or were reading it for the first time while standing in line.

The line started moving after about fifteen minutes -- moving at the rate of about one store front every five minutes or so. People left the line to go to the restroom or get coffee -- the Barnes & Noble had an in-house Starbucks, there was another Starbucks by th Rotunda, and the line went right past a Cinnabon. But not everyone who left came back -- the man from Chicago who had been up all night excused himself to go to Starbucks and never returned; the man with the promise to his wife also left without a trace. At about oh, nine-thirty or so, we approached the Barnes & Noble; I handed over my Federalist Papers and excused myself -- we were beginning to worry about being in time to get wristbands & books outside, so I wanted to buy copies in the store. I also got a coffee and visited the restroom.

I needn't have worried. I met up with my group right at the table where wristbands were being given out, they had just finished and were graciously waiting for me. Our group, having bought copies of Going Rogue and received our tags, was escorted into the Nickelodeon amusement park and put in a line which normally holds people in line for the roller coaster. It was about 10:00 AM.

We had been standing there awhile when there was a stir and bustle, with lots of people ahead of us bunching up in the walkway and taking pictures. It turned out it was Trig Palin being held by a woman, with everyone crowding around. He was wearing a red outfit with silly round plastic glasses. And that's not all -- Sarah Palin's mother, father, and aunt were there, signing books as well (great way to keep the crowd happy while waiting, by the way). I felt sorry for the young woman who was coordinating this, as she kept trying to usher the family to another part of the amusement park to rest and/or meet and greet other people in line, and the line of people kept straggling up for autographs, over her feeble protests that "we can't sign any more we have to move on."

When I returned to my knot of fellow attendees, and mentioned the family, several of the women asked if Todd was there too. I said, "I think he'd be with Sarah" and they mentioned something about not wanting Todd's autograph, but to get to meet Todd. (I think the proper translation is *THUD*.)

Our group left the line to go upstairs to the food court: and on the way back we stopped to look down at the rotunda, at about 11:30. Sarah was *already* in place, half an hour early, signing away! Quick, back to the line!

After about an hour to an hour-and-a-half more, our section of line *finally* began to move. The process was very well organized: they split the line up into two separate lines, where bags and purses were examined, light patdowns executed, and people were wanded. One woman with us, who had retrieved Diet Cokes from her car, passed them out to everyone near her so they wouldn't be confiscatd later. Then up through the rope line towards the dais where Todd and Sarah were seated.

The rope line itself kept going in fits and starts, for two reasons: one, people kept on stopping in the center to take cell-phone and digital cameras of the signings from 20 and 30 feet away, and two, once you were about to go to the front, you had to hand over all purses, cell-phones, cameras, and the like (you were given a numbered sheet of paper to claim it later) for security purposes.

(But let nobody think this means that the Palins were cold or aloof: one person -- I wasn't close enough to see if it was a man or a woman-- was in a wheelchair at the side of the stage, and Sarah and Todd *stopped* the assembly line to go over to greet and sign their book and greet them in person. To the thunderous applause of all of us near the stage, by the way. Would Joe Biden have settled for a "Stand up, Chuck" moment instead?)

When you reached the stage, they checked your books, tucked the flap into the title page, and sent you up. I had signatures from the family, and was instructed to tell the people who passed the books to Sarah that they had signatures. Alas! Alas! To no avail. Once the books were signed (and a quick "What is your name, thanks for coming" from Sarah and a handshake from Todd), my books were swept into a stack with about a dozen others, despite my protestations. I received two signed copies of the book with Sarah's signature alone (Todd only signed one or two books the entire time I was in line); and so someone else has received a copy of a book with Sarah's parents and her aunt's signatures in it as well.

I am aware of a curious combined sense of letdown, and of sympathy for the Palins after this. They themselves appeared to be holding up well, but all of the staff and support personnel -- the ones who keep things flowing smoothly, with no embarrassing glitches -- looked positively fried. But you could see on Sarah's face that though she liked meeting people, she disliked the "assembly line" aspect of it, and wanted to do more to connect. But, just as I sensed in her campaign visit to Blaine, MN, last year during the Presidential Campaign, the exigencies of satisfying the masses won out. Nonetheless, one got the impression that during this book tour, she was largely free of *political* handlers, always slapper her down to stay "on message". Read the book for more details on this, by the way, especially the roles played by Nicole Wallace and Steve Schmidt.

Lessons learned:

1) Like an ACORN voter, arrive early and often.

2) Conservatives, FReepers, "Dan's Bake Sale" types, and bicylists are among the nicest, friendliest people you'll meet. Rely on them, trust them.

3) Poor Sarah: the problems of a sound-byte news, and the size of crowds in-person, disallow any kind of intense, involved, or personal discussion of the issues. This is not a sign of shallowness or insincerity, but of the demands of the medium. If you want more depth, see her Facebook postings or read her book.

4) There are many more conservatives -- and more determined, more vocal, and more *normal* -- than you'll EVER hear or see about on the LSM. The one exception was that there was a crew from Minneapolis 1280 AM WWTC "The Patriot": I caught the eye of one of them and said, "1280 AM The Patriot, right?" (Nod.) "Oh, you're the good guys." (thankful enthusiastic grin).

TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: christianright; goingrogue; minnesota; palin; sarahpalin; whiskersvanity

Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-71 last

To: grey_whiskers