By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: December 3, 2009

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

NORMAN, Okla. -- Waiting hour upon hour in temperatures that hovered in the thirties, fans of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin patiently anticipated the arrival of the one-time Republican vice-presidential candidate as she rolled into Norman to the Hastings music and book store as part of her bus tour of America promoting her best-selling book, Going Rogue.

Thomas Schneider, a student at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater and hailing from Tahlequah, said he had purchased a copy of Going Rogue at the Hastings back in Stillwater and one copy at the Norman location.

"They gave wristbands to only 500 people and I was one of the lucky 500," said the bundled-up Palin fan. "It's been a lot of fun and I've met a lot of neat people."

Elgin native Lynn Smith told Red Dirt Report that she became a fan of Sarah Palin last fall when she became John McCain's running mate.

"My family and I are Republicans," Smith said. "A friend of mine said (Palin) was going to be here and I was going to get a book signed for my Dad for Christmas."

Asked if she hoped Palin ran for president in 2012, Smith replied, "I hope she does."

As the line of fans snaked through the shopping center, almost all the way to the Panera bread restaurant, country music blared and people talked excitedly about her impending arrival, while clutching their copies of Going Rogue. The word amongst the media, corralled in a small area and not allowed in the store, was that Palin would speak and then go inside where she would sign copies of her book for the lucky 500.

And while it was said she would speak at 6 p.m., her blue "Going Rogue Tour 2009" bus did not roll into the Hastings parking lot until well after 7 p.m. She exited the bus in a dark-colored outfit, holding her baby son Trig.

As people streamed in, the media was kept outside for 15 more minutes. Finally allowed inside, Palin was found at the far back of the book portion of the cavernous store, smiling and talking to fan and scribbling her signature in the inside cover of each and every copy of Going Rogue.

Meanwhile, outside, anti-Palin protesters - "Gays Against Hate" - had gathered, holding signs claiming that Sarah Palin was against "equality" or was a parrot ot talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. One referred to Rep. Sally Kern, considered by gays and lesbians as an enemy due to her outspoken statements on homosexuality,  as being part of the Ku Klux Klan.

One loud protester shouted he couldn't believe anyone would pay $20 for Palin's book.

But from the looks of it, many, many Normanites were all too willing to do just that and meet the charming, bespectacled woman behind those words.

Copyright 2009 West Marie Media