She was greeted by "about five hundred adoring supporters" * Gov. Palin visited the Books A Million store in Baton Rouge to sign copies of America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag. A crowd of about 500 enthusiastic supporters were waiting in line for her. A report from television station WBRZ:
Also covering the event were WAFB-TV and The Daily Reveille, the student newspaper for Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
* Posted early Tuesday morning by Gov. Palin on Facebook:
“America By Heart” Book Tour and Reviews
The “America By Heart” book tour continues today in Baton Rouge, LA and Little Rock, AR. Click here for details.
I got a chance to speak with Jedediah Bila from Human Events last week. You can check out her great column about it here.
Last May I had the honor of meeting radio show host Hugh Hewitt at an event we both spoke at in Denver. He’s a great patriot, and I’m humbled by his kind words about “America By Heart.” You can read his review here.
I mention in “America By Heart” that National Review is one of my favorite magazines, and I used excerpts of articles by a number of NR writers. Among them is Kathryn Jean Lopez, who always has such wonderful insight into cultural issues, particularly in regard to building a culture of life. I’m honored by her thoughtful review of “America By Heart” and especially by her including it in the same review with Pope Benedict’s new book. You can read her article here.
Fox & Friends interviewed Luigi Zingales, the University of Chicago economist whose work I mentioned in “America By Heart.” You can see the interview here.
I look forward to seeing you in Baton Rouge and Little Rock today and signing your books!
"You may have shaken hands with the future president" * Mary Sparacello of The Times-Picayune reports on Gov. Palin's book signing event this evening in Metairie, an unincorporated city of about 145,000 adjacent to New Orleans:
Nancy Adams and her daughter Jolie Taubin of Covington had waited all day Monday to be one of the first people to meet Sarah Palin and shake her hand at a book signing in Metairie. They said the wait was worth it.
"It was an experience you won't forget," Adams told her 9-year-old daughter after they met Palin.
Adams and Taubin were two of hundreds of people who waited hours to meet Palin on Monday night at a book-signing at Barnes & Noble on Veterans Memorial Boulevard.
Palin signed copies of "America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag." The book hit bookshelves Nov. 23, and Metairie was an early stop on the national tour. Palin will be in Baton Rouge at a Books-a-Million on Tuesday morning.
When Palin stepped behind the book-signing table, the excited crowd cheered and broke out in scattered chants of "Run, Sarah, run," encouraging Palin to run for president in 2012.
About 300 people were waiting in line Monday morning for the bookstore's doors to open so they could buy the book and get a wristband for the signing, said Jennifer Simon, community relations manager for the Metairie store. Bookstore employees wouldn't release a final count of wristbands given out.
Palin smiled widely, shook hands and spoke with everyone as she autographed books.
"Six children," the mother of five and former vice presidential candidate exclaimed to one woman. "You have me beat."
Attendees said they were surprised at how friendly Palin was. "She's very personable, very charming," said Gwen Mitchell of Destrehan.
* Our friends at US for Palin will be live streaming Gov. Palin's SRLC speech here:
US for Palin contributor Adrienne Ross will be live blogging from the event in New Orleans also at Motivation Truth. Both websites are part of the Blogs 4 Palin blogging community.
And according to Taegan Goddard, C-SPAN will be cablecasting the entire event.
Mark Barabak at the LA Times has a preview of the four-day conference:
When Republican activists gather in New Orleans for three days of strategizing and speeches starting Thursday, one big attraction will present a big question: Is Sarah Palin angling for the party's 2012 presidential nomination?
The former Alaska governor will join several other possible White House contenders addressing 3,000 or so party loyalists at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Also appearing are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia; Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour; former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum; and, by video, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
[...]
Her appearance will be one of a growing number of political speeches Palin has given since leaving the governor's office, publishing a best-seller and launching herself as a TV personality. The question is whether Friday's appearance is a step toward a White House run, or simply another marketing effort -- not that one necessarily precludes the other.
"It helps her celebrity," said David Carney, a GOP strategist attending the conference. "It also exposes her to 50, 60, 100 people from different states who will go back to their Republican Central Committee meetings . . . or the steering committees for various candidates . . . and say, 'We need to get Gov. Palin out here for our Lincoln Day dinner, or let's have a rally and invite her.'"
His full piece is here, and it comes with the usual lamestream media bias warning.
Elsewhere in the LSM, David Chalian of ABC News poses the question that the Romney and Pawlenty teams must have pondered:
"If Sarah Palin, with her mega-wattage superstar status sucking up all the available oxygen in the room, is it worth sharing a stage and competing for some attention?"
Ed Morrissey, who will be in New Orleans to report on the convention, sees this as a test for Gov. Palin:
"The test may not be of her as much as it is of her intent. If she decides to run, she would be formidable, with a large base of passionate supporters. So far, though, she has mainly signaled an interest in activism and in expanding her media reach. The SRLC may give a clearer idea what she has planned for the next two years."
In her SRLC speech Friday, Sarah Palin is expected to specifically address President Obama’s energy policy. At The Cypress Times, John Winder suggests the governor's address in New Orleans "may very well be her act of throwing down the gauntlet to officially challenge the status quo thus setting the stage for a dramatic 2012 election."
The Washington Post's newest blogger Dave Weigel has a post up that looks at some of the pre-conference maneuvering going on regarding the SRLC straw poll. Weigel reported last month that the Ronulans snapped up 800 tickets for the event to make sure their guy gets the long straw in the poll.
