The Middle Finger

Sarah Palin was in the greater Cincinnati area today doing a book signing at a local Kroger grocery store. I saw the full-page ad in the newspaper earlier this week along with all the stipulations for attending the event. Here are a few of the rules:

·         Autograph seekers could not line up before 10pm the night before.

·         Tents were not allowed.

·         Fans had to have purchased her book from Kroger’s and needed to bring the book and receipt to line up.

·         Wrist bands would be handed out at 6am for the first 500 people in line.

I am not a Sarah Palin fan, but thought I might get up a little early and see what the scene was like. I live in a very Republican county and saw enough of the madness at the last Presidential primaries to know that Palin fans could be ruthless. So I set my alarm and went to sleep.

But when the alarm went off, I hit snooze. It just wasn’t worth it to get up early and go out into the 20-degree cold to see a bunch of crazy fans. I had no doubt that people camped out there all night long for a chance to see Palin. I imagined  traffic jams and a mobbed line stretching throughout the entire parking lot. I doubted I could even get that close to Kroger’s to see what the scene was like. This could be Sarah’s middle finger to all the “Haters”.

Except that it wasn’t. All the local news channels were covering the story on the morning news. They showed the line of people bundled up in coats, hats and blankets in the cold. As they were interviewed, you could see their breath in the chilly air. One woman brought her 3-year-old because it “meant so much to her (the 3-year-old).”  If you say so, Lady.

As promised, they started handing out wrist bands at 6am. The first 100 people got to go inside at this point to wait for the 11am signing. Others sat in their cars. Maybe some went home. But the big surprise was that all 500 wrist bands hand not yet been given out. At 6am, there were still spots left if you hurried to Kroger’s.

I went about my morning routine and turned the news on again at 9am. There were still a hundred wrist bands left. Yikes! How embarrassing. Sarah Palin was coming to Cincinnati to sit inside a Kroger grocery store and sign her books, but not even 500 people were interested. At this point the news stations were urging people to go.  Maybe she should have joined forces with the Old Spice Guy yesterday. His line was REALLY long.