Bloomington, MN – Hundreds of Sarah Palin fans rose before dawn Monday for the chance to meet the conservative star, who brought her book tour to Minnesota’s Mall of America.
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Die-hard supporters treated the event like another Black Friday, lining up outside in freezing weather before the mall doors opened at 5 a.m.
Emily Calhoon, a high school junior from Minnetonka, took the day off school with a group of fellow students and arrived at 4:45 a.m. Calhoon, 16, said she likes Palin’s conservatism.
“She’s a lot more relatable than the stereotypical old rich white male,” said Calhoon as she waited in line, clutching a copy of Palin’s memoir of her life and political career, “Going Rogue.”
The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee arrived just before noon. Wearing her trademark red, she took the stage joined by her husband, Todd, and carrying their son Trig.
But, not everyone at the mall was a fan. Bloomington police said a local man threw a tomato at Palin from the second level of the rotunda at 2 p.m.. Police say the tomato missed Palin by about 10 feet, but hit two officers after striking the stage. The man was arrested on a gross misdemeanor count of fourth-degree assault on a police officer and a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.
This is not the first such incident. In Rochester someone came to throw eggs at Mrs Palin, but she wasn’t there so he threw them at other people instead. The irrational hatred that the Democratic Party and its flaks in the media stirred up against her is certainly responsible. She was the subject of the worst smear campaign in American history; last year someone on the web collected more than 80 separate false claims made about her, each more bizarre than the next. And this is the result. Any Democrat who complains about those who call Obama a Moslem must first denounce and dissasociate himself from the whole anti-Palin campaign, and pledge that he never repeated any of the false allegations against her; if he can’t do that then he should keep his mouth shut.
Waste of a good tomato.
Its the hypocritical biased media that’s to blame. Someone throws a shoe at Bush and its a big laugh. If someone threw a shoe at Obama, he’d immediately be branded a racist wannabe terrorist.
I truly feel that this country is hopelessly divided politically. The Democrats refuse to accept anything the Republicans do politically and vice versa. If the Republicans do well in the midterm elections next year, their victories will be chalked up to racist hysteria fueled by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.
Hard to believe that there were once great Democrats like FDR, Harry Truman and JFK.
this guys face looks like a tomato