Gov. Palin in Oklahoma

I met Gov. Sarah Palin and her father tonight, and it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

As a rule, I don’t go out of my way to meet public figures I admire – in Gov. Palin’s case, I made a happy exception. As I’ve written before, Gov. Palin is the first political figure I’ve “gone all in” for, and from the few minutes I was around her tonight, she did not disappoint.

Briefly: firm handshake, warm smile, looks you in the eye when asking questions and even better looking in person. Sarah Palin is the first human being I’ve ever stood in line for just to meet, and that the first thing she noticed about me was my “Defender of Capitalism” button certainly didn’t hurt my impression of her.

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Like most of Oklahoma, winter doesn’t usually hit the Norman area until after Christmas. It was fitting that the coldest day I remember in an Oklahoma December also happened to be a day I was standing in a line outside for three-and-a-half hours waiting for a woman from Alaska most people had never heard of 18 months ago. This is no complaint – many people, from beginning to end, spent nearly 30 hours waiting in line, first for their bracelet, then for their signed book. The temperature was in the 30s, but it was overcast and windy, meaning it was miserable.

Yeah yeah, I know, places like Michigan are much, much colder than Oklahoma, but that’s sort of the point – we’re not used to this kind of cold this time of year, so the fact that there were more than a thousand people there to greet and hopefully meet Gov. Palin speaks volumes regarding her popularity in America’s reddest state – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: She could move to Oklahoma and win our governorship in a landslide.

It was cold and I wasn’t properly dressed for the kind of cold we had, so I spent a few hours in the Hasting’s Hardback Café, using the free WiFi and drinking iced coffee. As I’m wont to do, I got paranoid that something would happen, so I got in line at four – there were probably 250-300 people in front of me. I came alone, but was in line for all that time with an Army Captain, a woman my age and her teenage daughter, a woman in her forties, a sixty-ish Hispanic couple and a group of sixty-ish women who happened to be from the same town as me. The bracelet line snaked through the outdoor shopping center for about 200 yards – they said there were 500 bracelets, but it seemed like more.

Much of the parking lot was cleared, and there was room for the overflow crowd – I’m bad at guestimating, but I would say there were another 800 to 1,000 people out there (please correct me in the comments if I’m way off) in the freezing cold just wanting a glimpse of Gov. Palin. Two news choppers hovered in the sky, and four or five satellite trucks were in the lot. Print and broadcast reporters were interviewing all sorts of people, and this being Oklahoma, they were probably just as Conservative as the people in line, so there were no media meltdowns.

For context: Oklahoma Conservatism is bred through church – Okies are primarily Southern Baptist or non-denominational evangelicals, and one of the primary reasons Gov. Palin resonates here is because of her religious faith and the fact that she’s not embarrassed by it. Those who’ve read her book will quickly understand why she is so popular in a place like Oklahoma. Add in the Lifetime NRA Member status and a son serving in the military, and Sarah Palin, Alaskan as they come, fits in easily in Oklahoma. This is a good thing.

Once the bus showed up, things started moving. I have flat feet, the bladder of a five-year-old and was freezing cold, so this was a welcome sign. The bus showed up a few minutes early and people were emerging from the Norman Hasting’s with signed copies before 7 p.m., which was another welcome sign. Many people thought she would give a speech (no idea where that rumor came from) but I was glad she didn’t because physically, I was in misery.

I finally got into the store by 7:30 and it went quickly from there. A Hasting’s docent stood in line for me while I sprinted to the bathroom, and then as we got closer, we were allowed to “check our bags.” From there, a few people at a time were led to where she was signing and the Army Captain, the woman in her forties and I were the last ones let through because Gov. Palin needed a break. This worked perfectly for us, as we got to loiter in the signing area for five minutes or so.

Gov. Palin commented on my button, I told her I write for C4P, she said she loves the site and asked my name again and we talked about C4P for a moment. While doing this, she’s signing book after book while asking me questions about my writing and I blithered like an idiot. I told her “thank you” and then moved aside, where I saw her father. I immediately went to him, reached out my hand and introduced myself, too loudly saying “Mr. Heath, it’s an honor to meet you!” or something to that effect. I told him I write for C4P and he got a huge smile on his face (he said he loves the site), so then I asked him about the awesome bus, and we talked about that for a couple minutes while Gov. Palin took her break, which literally was her taking a few drinks from a soda and not having to sign books.

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I’m a supreme introvert, so I didn’t meet a lot of people while there, but I did meet Wanda Martin who is big in “Oklahomans for Sarah,” itself part of Team Sarah. She gave me her card, which I was happy to see included the C4P site address – Martin, like me, like so many other Oklahomans, probably sees Gov. Palin as a lot like us. When I was talking to her, she mentioned the word “values” several times, and I think something that is overlooked regarding Gov. Palin’s allure in places like Oklahoma is that her values are instantly recognizable because they are our own. I also talked to the people in the front of the line – they were from Norman and showed up at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, stayed the night, got their bracelet, got back in line all to get a moment with the remarkable Gov. Palin. I took several minutes of Flip footage, but none of it was usable because I’m a terrible photographer.

While I was standing in line, freezing my arse off, chit-chatting with people I didn’t know and will never see again, I was reminded of something a fellow C4Per mentioned, and the thought popped into my head: forget CPAC and WCPAC – it’s time for C4P-PAC. Nothing that happened at Gov. Palin’s signing in Norman was unusual – she gets this reception at every stop she makes. That’s sort of the point – while other Conservative politicians fail us repeatedly, Gov. Palin inspires people of all walks to do things like stand out in the blistering cold just to get a moment with her, just to shake her hand, just to buy her book, just to say thank you. I’m one of those people – I don’t agree with her every decision, but I don’t have to. Gov. Palin has not inspired a movement that walks in lock-step chanting ethereal, meaningless mantras, she has united a vast swath of people who recognize that we are losing something irreplaceable.

With that I close – what a wonderful evening focused on such a stellar woman.