“We don’t do this. We aren’t the kind of people who stand in line for rock stars,” insisted Darla Duhamella, after waiting in the rain to meet Palin. “But [Palin’s] voice resonates with ours. She is able to stand up and say what we aren’t able to.”…

Palin spoke for only two minutes before walking inside to sign books for the next three hours. At the conclusion of the event, as soon as Palin walked out, dozens of young children ran forward from the back of the crowd to try to get a glimpse of her, returning to their parents with shouts of “I saw her, I saw her!”

Tony Downs, a local police officer who came with his wife, surmised that Palin’s message resonates because she is “not a politician.”

“She’s not from Washington,” he said. “She hasn’t been corrupted.”