Sarah at home: "She is a beautiful person"

When Dee Lofton of Yuma, Arizona told friends and neighbors she was going to Wasilla, Alaska to visit her daughter, the standard response was, "Tell Sarah, 'hello.'" So she decided to do just that:

"I made a card for Sarah that said, 'Hello from your friends in Yuma, Arizona.' It had 200 signatures and personal notes. Three local bands also gave me their CDs, and some of the business people here gave me cards to give her."

Since Sarah and Todd Palin don't make a habit of inviting strangers to visit their home, Lofton had a problem. She contacted government offices in Alaska to try to arrange a meeting, but could not get through the red tape. So she tracked down Palin's father-in-law, Jim Palin, who arranged for Lofton to meet Sarah at her home. Jim Palin told Lofton that, aside from media figures who have interviewed the governor in her home, this sort of thing has never happened before:

"I think it was the 200 signatures that did it."

Lofton, said the people who signed the card were a sort of bipartisan coalition:

"The people who signed the card included liberals and conservatives from both parties. How they feel about Sarah was important, not their party affiliation. Sarah and I did not discuss politics at all."

So what was it like to meet a 2008 vice presidential candidate on her own turf?

"I was not nervous when I met her because she is not that kind of person. Even though she is the governor, she is also a wife, a mother and a grandmother and is very friendly. She does not put on any airs. She is a beautiful person and has a bubbly personality."

We hear similar reports every time an everyday person meets Governor Palin. Each and every time they say that she is the real deal. Which goes along way toward explaining the ease with which Sarah Palin connects with ordinary Americans. As so many of them have said, "She is one of us."

- JP