Sleepless east of Seattle

They began lining up at 10 o'clock Saturday morning outside the Richland Hastings store in eastern Washington State. Sarah Palin, whom they had come to see and whose signature they hoped to get inside the covers of their copies of Going Rogue, wasn't scheduled to be there until noon the following day. It's scene that has been repeated at every stop on on the eastern leg of her book tour, and it all begins anew in the West today.

The Seattle Times reports:

By 9:30 Saturday night, some 250 of the faithful were camped outside the store, sitting in lawn chairs, covering themselves with blankets and sleeping bags, warming up with portable propane heaters.

"She stands for what we stand for, which is greatly lacking in Seattle," said Debi Danielson, 54, of Yakima. "Only in Seattle can you come up with a government that has the idea that they know how to do everything."

Identify yourself as being from west of the Cascades — specifically, that liberal city by Elliott Bay — and you will be told in no uncertain terms why they love Sarah here.

Danielson was here with her husband, Dale Danielson, 55, a craftsman who works for the Bureau of Reclamation, doing stuff like fixing fish screens. Also accompanying them was Debi Danielson's mom, Vi Grauman, 80.

"The state should be chopped in half," said the husband, about the eastside/westside political split.

Debi Danielson described the crowd patiently waiting outside in the cold.

"We're conservative. We won't leave a mess like liberals do," she said. "Ever seen the parks after they leave? All garbage."

More here.

- JP