7:00 AM: 1,500 in line at Grand Rapids bookstore for Sarah Palin signing event

Kathleen Gray of the Detroit Free Press describes the scene outside the Woodland Mall Barnes & Noble bookstore in Grand Rapids early Wednesday morning where Sarah Palin's first Going Rogue book signing event begins at 6:00 PM:

It was 4:55 when the first cheer went up.

“Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!”

And that’s 4:55 this morning when the thermometer had dipped into the 30s. But the 500 or so people in line didn’t mind the sleepless night or the onset of winter.

“What she represents is what we’re standing in line for,” said Robin Case, 44, of Traverse City, who set up a chair and sleeping bag at 9 p.m. Tuesday to make sure she got the chance to meet Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate. “She’s real and she’s standing up for what we believe in.”

[...]

By 7 a.m., the line had swelled to more than 1,500 people as Barnes & Noble employees wrapped orange wristbands around Palin fans' wrists.

Read The Freep's full story here.

Video from Grand Rapids television station WOOD is here.

Stacy McCain says Michigan has Palin-mania!

USA Today has more here.  

Update: All the wristbands are gone, and there were still people waiting in line to get one, according to MSDNC...

Huge lines this morning meant a record number of book sales at the Grand Rapids Barnes & Noble.

A spokeswoman for Harper Collins tells NBC News more than 1,000 copies of "Going Rogue" have been sold. The bookstore has already run out of wristbands for those standing in line since early this morning. That means the rest of those who waited in the cold will likely not get a chance to get their book signed by Sarah Palin tonight.

Photos from the Grand Rapids Press are here. Our updated Going Rogue Book Tour schedule is here.

- JP