A couple of years ago, Terry Pratchett came to the National Book Festival in DC. We got in line for his autograph with our then 2 year old son (it wasn’t so bad – we were on the National Mall, so my wife & I took turns taking him for walks. He was tired, but not upset by the wait). We were waiting for hours, and every 15 minutes or so, the volunteers came by the lines and told us the rules: one book per person and signatures only – no dedications.

When we finally got to the front of the line about an hour after the signing was supposed to end, Mr. Pratchett had a bag of frozen peas on his wrist, and he still said – “Wait a minute – any kid that young who waited for me that long deserves a dedication”, and he signed my son’s copy of “Where’s My Cow” with “Dear Evan: Here’s your cow. T.P”.

It was a little thing – it took him all of 15 seconds to do. But he did it while in pain at the end of a very long day, for the sake of someone who probably won’t even know who he is for another 5 years. He did it because his fans are important to him.

Would anyone like to take a bet on Palin doing something similar?

http://santorumexposed.com/pages/video/stickerw.php

Not only Sarah. Rick Santorum, using a made-up gravely voice out of some Marines movie from 1943, talked about how our brave troops fought and died in WW II and they stood up and made the ultimate sacrifice and so on. Then said, can you stand up? Can you sign a check for Rick Santorum?

It was a classic.

The question to all of us is, ‘How much are we willing to fight to maintain this great country?’ I always find it remarkable that the men and women who are serving in the armed services, who are out there sacrificing tonight, and God bless them, that they – they volunteer. They step forward. In time of war, they step forward.

Cuz we have a culture now that doesn’t say ‘Serve.’ It doesn’t say ‘Don’t think about yourself.’ It says ‘Me, me, me.’ It’s a very self-absorbed, me-centered, excessive popular culture.

And yet we have brave men and women who are willing to step forward because they know what’s at stake. They’re willing to sacrifice their lives for this great country.

What I am asking all of you tonight, is not to put on a uniform. Put on a bumper sticker. Is it that much to ask? Is it that much to ask to step up and serve your country, to fight for what we believe in. To fight for the values that have made this the country the greatest count- we got here not because we were doing things really wrong, that our traditions and our morals were way out of whack, we got here because we were a good, decent county. A country guided by divine Providence.

We will only stay that great country if we continue that fight. I’m asking ya to help me do that. God Bless you. Thank you.”

I don’t know if anyone who had a wristband was abandoned, bereft of autograph in GR, Mich the other day. The mall in Kentwood is at least very large, roomy, and covered, so at least people wouldn’t have been wet and angry. Apparently, they book her for two hours at a time, and then all it a day. So either they need to keep people moving, or they should cut the number to 750 from 1000. I dunno. I’d prefer that some of the true believers have their faith shaken at about 10 on the Richter scale.

The Sarah-love blogs are posting the Politico video to show, proof-positive, there was no crowd ‘grumbling’ when she left the signing…that she’s – again – being smeared by the jealous, libruls; it was a set up by the libruls and librul sites like the Mudflats are posting a video that ISN’T TRUE to make her –dear, beloved, do-no-wrong Sarah– look bad. (See: “Roguish Liberal Behavior” ~ http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2009/11/roguish-liberal-behavior.html )

In the Politico video, you can’t clearly hear any of what SP is saying. So, in context of the video, I ‘made up’ the gist of what I think Politico is wanting people to think she is saying *just before* she gets on the bus to be whisked off into the night. From other videos of the event, this –her addressing the crowd at *that* point of the evening– is obviously NOT what happened.

I have a feeling Politico (and Sarah-love sites) are hoping no one will notice the difference in the color of the sky in their video: one second, grayish-blue (consistent with 5-5:50pm-ish) and the next, pitch black (consistent with 9-9:30pm-ish). Politico did some not-too-clever video editing and is presenting the video *as if* the time-line for what they’re showing is seamless – that it’s an accurate, second-by-second, video of what happened when she quit signing books and left the mall in Indiana. Fail. beth.