 "Photo: John Larson, The Volante, 2009")
 "Photo: John Larson, The Volante, 2009")
Hundreds of people, including a few USD faculty and students, stood in freezing temperatures for hours in hopes of getting an up-close look at Sarah Palin while she signed a copy of her new book.
The former vice presidential candidate and former governor of Alaska recently released “Going Rogue” and immediately became a New York Times Best-seller while on a nationwide tour to promote it. The Palin caravan started signing books at 5 p.m. Sunday.
The huge turnout for the book signing should not have been a surprise, said Miss South Dakota and USD junior Morgan Peck. The Miss America hopeful said her father stood in line outside Barnes and Noble from 10:30 p.m. Saturday until 6:55 a.m. Sunday when she arrived to take his place. She said there were roughly 150 people waiting when she arrived.
The waiting paid off when Peck finally met the 1984 Miss Alaska around 6 p.m.
“It was an event I knew I wanted to come to the second I heard about it,” Peck said. “And it was really wonderful to get to meet her.”
Peck said Palin isn’t faking it when she seems like a genuine, honest person on television.
“She’s real,” Peck said. “She shook my hand and wanted to get a picture with me. It was a very exciting moment.”
Capt. Dave Alexander, of USD’s ROTC military science department, said he couldn’t resist the Palin phenomenon.
“I’m not for her or against her, (Palin) is just an interesting character,” he said. “People are drawn to her.”
Alexander, who drove to Barnes and Noble in Sioux Falls from Vermillion at 4 a.m., said waiting all day was a small price to pay.
Republican secretary of state candidate state Sen. Jason Gant, R-Sioux Falls, said he waited three hours outside the store before the line fortunately moved up enough to get some people inside. He waited a few more hours inside before getting a glimpse at Palin.
“Standing outside in the cold wasn’t fun but it was worth it,” Gant said.
To deal with the amount of people and to ensure the safety of Palin, Barnes and Noble officials had law enforcement officers, including some in civilian clothes, from the Sioux Falls police department on location.
Other state officials and public figures such as Rep. Tim Rave, R-Baltic, speaker of the house, and former public utilities commission democratic candidate Matt McClarty were all in attendance.
Rave said having someone with as much notoriety as Palin come to South Dakota is a blessing.
“People here really appreciate getting to see a great lady like Mrs. Palin,” he said.
Gant agreed and said it’s important that people make the most out of times like this.
“(South Dakotans) have to take advantage of these opportunities because they don’t happen very often,” he said. “When they do, you have to go.”
Peck said Palin, whose book tour recently stopped in other cities of similar size, including Sioux City, Iowa that same day, is choosing to go where people will appreciate her.
“It’s her strategy, going to the smaller areas,” Peck said. “People are really going to be happy to have her.”
Peck said she knows firsthand as a Miss America contestant and as Miss South Dakota that smaller communities get more excited to have a celebrity’s presence.
“If I go to Bryant, S.D. or a town with a population of 157, then everybody there is so excited to meet me and so happy that I come,” Peck said. “So that’s sort of shows how (Palin) has made a good decision.”
Palin also picked up a mascot along her book tour. Gary Chiero of the Columbus, Ohio area, also known as Palin Man, said he has been following Palin’s tour since her stop in Ohio.
Palin Man said after the stop in Sioux City he wanted to go home but people from Palin’s entourage talked him into tagging along to Sioux Falls.
“I’m not official or anything but I’ve gotten to know (Palin’s people) pretty well,” he said. “They call me their good luck charm.”
Palin Man wasn’t sure how long he would be following the tour but confirmed an appearance at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
Reach reporter Joe Sneve at Joe.Sneve@usd.edu.
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