Palin fans push for 2012 presidential election
Former governor targets loyal base on book tour
Fayetteville, Arkansas : Lynn Giese calls Sarah Palin the best thing that's happened to the US in a long time and the 57-year-old housewife says she'd work tirelessly for the former Alaska governor were she to run for president in 2012.
"I'd do anything, go anywhere," said Giese, of Bokoshe, Oklahoma, while waiting in line at a Sam's Club in Fayetteville, where Palin signed copies of Going Rogue, her best-selling memoir.
She'd also have support from Kayla Hogue, a 20-year-old student who came to the same event sporting a button melding a photo of Palin and Ronald Reagan. And Bob Rutz, 78, first in line at Palin's book signing a day earlier in Springfield, Missouri, who said, "I'm hoping she'll be drafted [to run]."
These are the foot soldiers in Palin's army: thousands of devoted fans who show up to catch a glimpse of the one-time Republican vice- presidential nominee and former Alaska governor on her book tour and urge her to seek the nation's top job.
In Fayetteville, hundreds of people — some camping out in frigid weather nearly a day before the event — formed a line that snaked around the back of the store. They wore camouflage fatigues and suits, work boots and dress loafers, ball caps and cowboy hats and T-shirts that read "Palintologist."
Many Republicans look on nervously, worrying the unparalleled enthusiasm she generates among some conservative voters isn't enough to power a Republican victory over President Barack Obama in 2012.
