Cindy Rilling and Leisa Stapp of Moville, Iowa, arrived at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon and snagged the closest parking spot to the store’s front door.  They’re equipped with layer upon layer of clothing, “sub-zero” sleeping bags, a propane heater and a small tent.  “We’re so excited.  We’re a little crazy anyway.” Rilling told me four hours later, when I arrived at 7 p.m.  “We’re always up for a good time, an excuse to go out and do something.”

Why do this for Sarah Palin?

“She is me.  Everything that she stands for.  Standing up, being honest, no matter what anyone else thinks. I admire that.  I always say, ‘When I grow up, I want to be like Sarah Palin,’” Rilling said, with a laugh. “Plus, we’re setting a really good example for our kids.  We did not force them out tonight.”

Rilling’s 14-year-old son and Stapp’s 13-year-old son were standing nearby, but were bashful about speaking on tape.  Rilling’s son described the night ahead as “something to do.”  When I asked the other young man why he was there, he said, “Same,” and shrugged his shoulders as all four (mothers and sons) giggled.  The boys, er, young men are destined to spend part of the night in the small tent that’s already set up in the parking space, surrounded by camp chairs.

Stapp hopes Palin runs for president in 2012.  “Sarah Palin represents a movement,” she said, calling Palin “a grassroots, good conservative and she also represents to me going against a government that no longer represents its people…She is standing up and representing people whose voices have not been heard for a decade or more.”

Both women have been planning this literal night out for about six weeks, ever since they heard Palin would be signing books at this Sioux City bookstore.

The two women and their sons were not the first in line, however.  That distinction was earned by 22-year-old Todd Sargeant of Lebanon, Ohio.  That is not a typo.  He is from Ohio, not Iowa, and he arrived in Sioux City, Iowa at 1 p.m. Saturday.

“I missed her in Cincinnati and this was the closest spot I could come to meet her,” Sargeant told me.  Sargeant was sitting in a camp chair, clutching a green Barnes and Noble bag.  Inside were two copies of “Going Rogue.”

“I think she’s an inspiration to so many people and it’s just an honor to be here to get to meet her,” Sargeant said.  He, too, hopes Palin runs for president in 2012.

Sargeant may have to run in place himself this evening.  He was not equipped with the kind of outdoor gear the team from Moville had.  Sargeant is hoping he can stay warm with two coats and a blanket from his car.

Right now, at 8 p.m., the air temperature in Sioux City is 19 degrees, but a wind is blowing, so it feels like 10 degrees.  That’s fairly close to the weather conditions in Wasilla, Alaska right now.  According to The Weather Channel it’s 16 degrees and, with the wind, it feels like nine degrees in Wasilla — but it is 5 p.m. there.

As I left the crew of Palin fans to headed back to my heated hotel room nearby, Stapp was putting “D” batteries in her socks.  “I wear these to football games,” she explained, gesturing to her heated socks.

Meanwhile Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Kiron, seems to have the opposite view of Palin when it comes to these town hall meetings.

"I'm hoping the debate of the century takes place in the town hall meetings all across America in every state," King told Jerry Oster of WNAX in Yankton, South Dakota. "I hope the people in America will rise up and go fill those buildings up and demand that they be allowed to keep their health insurance policy and have the freedom to purchase one of their choice and not be shoehorned into a government program."

This past June, Huckabee spoke at the Iowa Association of Business and Industry convention in Okoboji. Ryan Long from KICD Radio in Spencer was there to cover Huckabee's speech.  As Huckabee used his hands to illustrate a point during his speech, he knocked the KICD microphone off the lectern. Huckabee picked the microphone up and put it back on the lectern. "I hope KICD is carrying my show," Huckabee quipped to the crowd.  KICD in Spencer, Iowa, is, indeed, carying his show and the next morning KICD listeners got to hear a recording of Huckabee knocking the microphone to the ground, picking it up, and expressing his hope that his voice is heard on KICD.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won the presidential-preference straw poll at this past weekend's Conservative Political Action Conference in D.C.  It's the third straight win for Romney in the CPAC straw poll.  Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was second.  Alaska Governor Sarah Palin tied for third with Texas Congressman Ron Paul.  Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was fifth, followed by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabeein sixth.  Jindal and Palin skipped CPAC.  The others named above were there.

"This is really grassroots people," Greiner said Saturday during a telephone interview with Radio Iowa.  "These are people that are actively engaged at the grassroots and all the table conversations at meals are, 'How do we move our party agenda forward' and 'How do we get our voices heard?'  People would like their voices to be heard."  

Past CPAC conventions have been seen as a rite of passage for future Republican presidential candidates, but neither Alaska Governor Sarah Palin nor Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal are there this weekend.  CNN has the list of candidates who are on a CPAC 2012 Straw Poll; results to be announced later today.

"The real buzz is not so much focusing on a national candidate at this point," Greiner said.  "The buzz is really more of an energizing thing for the conservative movement.  I can't honestly say that there's a candidate that's floating to the top."

Gingrich is reported to have roused the crowd, and Greiner offered this observation: "Newt's presentation did have people nodding, sitting forward in their chairs.  He was able to connect with people."

Greiner considers her fellow CPACers to be "like-minded people" who are "without a doubt, energized" about the future of the conservative movement.  "I think positive things will come from it," Greiner said of the convention, "But I'm not willing to say we're ready to stand up and make a change overnight. I think a lot of positive change will come from people getting together, exchanging names, business cards and ideas."

As for Greiner's political future, she did not seek reelection this past November and is coy about what may be next. "Right now I'm just kind of working at advancing good causes and trying to see what we can do to make not only Iowa, but the nation a better place to be because there's a lot of people with a lot of concerns right now."

Last summer at the Republican Party of Iowa's state convention Greiner was one of three candidates to be Iowa's committeewoman on the Republican National Committee, but she lost the race to Kim Lehman. 

Giertz just called the Radio Iowa newsroom to say he was back in D.C. working in Braley's office.  Giertz also shared that once Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was named John McCain's running mate, Giertz was redeployed from Alaska to Reno, Nevada.

"Did you win anything in Reno?" I asked during our telephone conversation.

"Obama won Nevada," was the reply from Giertz. 

To all the folks behind the scenes for all the campaigns, today I offer my thanks to them for returning calls, replying to email, keeping me in the loop.  Now, on to 2010 and 2012!  Remember, there are only 17 days 15 days (see update below) left until the kick-off of 2012 in Iowa.  Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana who was reportedly on McCain's "short list" of potential running mates, will be the keynote speaker at the Iowa Family Policy Center's "Celebrating the Family" banquet on November 22, 2008.  Or maybe GOP vice presidential candidate/Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s Election Eve stop in Dubuque, Iowa, marked the start of the next cycle?  Or maybe it was former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s speech at the Iowa GOP's state convention this summer when he mentioned Obama’s name more than McCain’s?

UPDATE:  James Q. Lynch of The Cedar Rapids Gazette advises via email that Huckabee is due in Cedar Rapids, at a Barnes & Noble there, on November 20 for a book-signing. Do the Right Thing:  Inside the Movement That's Bringing Common Sense Back to America is the title of Huckabee's book, scheduled for release on November 18.

UPDATE:  Eric Woolson, Huckabee's 2008 Iowa Caucus campaign manager, emailed a link to the book tour schedule.  There are TWO stops in Iowa:  the previously mentioned midday stop in Cedar Rapids on 11/20 and a stop in Des Moines that evening — at Sam's Club.

Palin delivered a speech on the topic of energy independence yesterday in Ohio and Democrats in Iowa were quick to jump on what they saw as an omission:  ethanol was not mentioned. 

Here's the statement from Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, released by the Iowa Democratic Party:  "It is unbelievable to me that Governor Palin spoke on energy today in Ohio and did not once mention biofuels or ethanol. These industries are an important component of Ohio’s economy and make up one of the fastest-growing sectors of Iowa’s economy. The renewable energy industry is creating jobs in Iowa, revitalizing our rural communities and making our nation more energy secure; yet the McCain-Palin ticket would like to turn back the clock on the progress we've made," Harkin said in the statement. “In fact, the McCain-Palin plan of lifting tariffs on imported ethanol and ending subsidies for biofuels producers would be devastating to Iowa’s economy. Importing cheap foreign ethanol and letting Iowa’s farmers wither on the vine is a dramatic step in the wrong direction. Governor Palin’s visit to Ohio was another reminder of how a vote for the Republican ticket would be a vote for four more years of the same failed policies of President Bush.”

Below, from the McCain campaign, is the "prepared for delivery" text of Palin's speech in Toledo, Ohio:

Thank you all very much. I appreciate the hospitality of Xunlight Energy, and all the people of Toledo. The folks at Xunlight are doing great work for this community and our country.

Every day, when there are no cameras around to draw attention to it, this company and others like it are engaged in the great enterprise of energy independence. And what we see here is just a glimpse of much bigger things to come. Solar power is one of many alternative energy sources that are changing our economy for the better. And one day they will change our economy forever.

All who work in pursuit of new and clean energy sources understand that America's energy problems do not go away when oil and gasoline prices fall, as they have in recent weeks. Oil today is running about 64 dollars a barrel — less than half of what it was just a couple of months ago. And though this sudden drop in prices sure makes a difference for families across America, the dangers of our dependence on foreign oil are just as they were before.

The price of oil is declining largely because of the market's expectation of a broad recession that would lower demand. This is hardly a good sign of things to come, and should only add to our sense of urgency in gaining energy independence. When our economy recovers, and growth once again creates new demand, we could run into the same brick wall of rising oil and gasoline prices — and now is the time to make sure that doesn't happen. In Washington, we can view this period of lower oil prices as just one more chance to make excuses — and on the problem of energy security, we've heard enough excuses. Or we can view it as an opportunity to finally confront the problem.

In reality, volatile oil prices are just the most immediate consequence when foreign powers control our energy supplies. They are an economic symptom of a strategic problem. And prices will stabilize only when we have reached the great goal of energy security for America.

Achieving this objective will require a clean break not just from the energy policies of the current administration, but from thirty years' worth of failed policies in Washington. As in other challenges that confront our nation, we must shape events, and not simply manage crises. We must steer far clear of the errors and false assumptions that have marked the energy policies of nearly twenty Congresses and seven presidents. Some tasks will be the work of decades, and some the work of years. And they all will begin in the term of the next president.

For our part, John McCain and I are determined to set this country firmly on a path toward energy independence. America has the resources to achieve this vital goal. We certainly have the ingenuity. And if John McCain and I are elected, we will supply the political will to finally get it done.

In my experiences in Alaska, I have seen what American ingenuity can achieve if given a chance. As governor of a huge energy-producing state, and as chair of our state's oil and gas conservation commission, and chairman of the nation's Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, I've also seen how political pressures, special interests, and corporate abuses can work against the clear public interest in expanding our domestic energy supplies.

Alaska is the one of the most resource-rich places on earth. Yet for many years, our state's oil and gas wealth was the carefully guarded preserve of the political establishment — the good ol' boys — rewarded by a few big oil companies and through an oil services company that liked things just the way they were. As you may have seen in the news this week, Alaska's senior senator is not the first man to discover the hazards of getting too close to moneyed interests with agendas of their own.

For the people of Alaska and their representatives, it had been hard enough to persuade Congress to authorize construction of the original Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline. And when Congress finally acted in 1973, it approved the pipeline over the "No" votes of five senators, including a freshmen senator named Joe Biden.

For the next three decades, there had been talk of building another pipeline to transport cleaner, greener natural gas down to the Lower 48. But that's all it ever amounted to — talk. And one of the main obstacles was big oil itself — ExxonMobil and other companies.

They should have been competing to invest in a new means of delivering their product to market. Instead, they wanted a higher price than fair competition would yield. They were holding out for more billions of dollars — in public money. No one in good conscience could pay them what they wanted to build that pipeline. And that's how we found things when I became governor: No progress, no pipeline, no gas revenue for Alaska, no added energy security for America.

So we introduced the big oil companies and their lobbyists to a concept some of them had forgotten — free-market competition. They had a monopoly on power and resources, and we broke it.

The result is, finally, progress on the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history — a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence. When the last section is laid and its valves are opened, that pipeline will lead America one step farther away from reliance on foreign energy. That pipeline will be a lifeline — freeing us from debt, dependence, and the influence of foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart.

We've shaken things up in Juneau. Whatever the good ol' boys are running these days, it's not the State of Alaska. And that's the kind of serious reform that we need in Washington, because the stakes for our country could not be higher.

Energy security is one of the great questions in this election. It tests our ability to confront and solve hard problems in Washington, instead of constantly putting things off. And it brings together so many other issues — from the value of our pay checks to our nation's most vital interests abroad. Americans blame Washington for doing next to nothing about our energy problems, and they are right.

Abroad, we see Russia with designs on a vital pipeline in the Caucasus. Its strategy is to divide and intimidate our European allies by using energy as a weapon. And there, as elsewhere, we cannot leave ourselves at the mercy of foreign suppliers.

To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of world's oil supplies … or that terrorists might strike at a vital refining facility in Saudi Arabia … or that Venezuela might shut off its oil deliveries … we Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas.

In the worst cases, some of the world's most oil-rich nations are also the most oppressive societies. And whether we like it or not, the money we pay for their oil only makes them more powerful and more oppressive. Oil wealth allows undemocratic governments to crush dissent and to subjugate women. Other regimes use it to finance terrorists around the world and criminal syndicates in our own hemisphere.

By relying upon oil from the Middle East, we not only provide wealth to the sponsors of terror — we provide high-value targets to the terrorists themselves. Across the world are pipelines, refineries, transit routes, and terminals for the oil we rely on. And Al Qaeda terrorists know where they are.

As if all this weren't bad enough, there is also the damage that our dependence on foreign oil inflicts on our economy. Over the years, trillions of dollars have flowed out of our country, often to nations or regimes hostile to our country. Through this massive transfer of wealth, we lose hundreds of billions of dollars a year that would be better invested in American enterprises to create American jobs.

All of this explains why, as Senator McCain has said, energy security is not just one more issue on the candidate questionnaire. Energy security is the sum total of so many problems that confront our nation. It demands of us that we shake off old ways, negotiate new hazards, and make hard choices long deferred. And three decades of partisan paralysis on energy security is enough. It's time we meet this challenge in a way consistent with the character of our nation, and that starts with producing more of our own energy.

In a McCain administration, we will authorize and support new exploration and production of America's own oil and gas reserves — because we cannot outsource the solution to America's energy problem. Every year, we are sending hundreds of billions of dollars out of the country for oil imports, much of it from OPEC, while America's own oil and gas reserves in America go unused. And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: we've got lots of both.

As a matter of fairness, we must assure affordable fuel for America by producing more of the trillions of dollars' worth of our oil and natural gas. On land and offshore, we will drill here and drill now!

Another essential means to energy independence is a dramatic expansion in our use of nuclear energy. In a McCain administration, we will set this nation on a course to build 45 new reactors by the year 2030. And we will set the goal of 100 new plants to power the homes and factories and cities of America.

This task will be as difficult as it is necessary. We will need to recover all the knowledge and skills that have been lost over three stagnant decades in a highly technical field. We will need to solve complex problems of moving and storing materials that will always need safeguarding. We will need to do all of these things, and do them right, as we have done great things before.

One of the efforts that will assist in securing our energy future is the development of clean-coal technology. And here we have another big disagreement with our opponents. Last month Joe Biden told a voter — and I quote — "we're not supporting clean coal." He says clean coal's a good idea for China — but sorry, Ohio, Joe Biden says it's not for you.

That's just nonsense, and there's plenty more of it in Senator Biden's record. He's against drilling off our coasts, for environmental reasons. But he says that offshore drilling holds real promise for the island nation of Cyprus — as if the environmental safeguards of the Cypriots are more rigorous than our own. And so far as he and Senator Obama are concerned, nuclear power's okay, too — but only for France and other European nations. Our opponents seem to have all sorts of solutions for the energy needs of other nations — now if only they'd focus more on what America needs.

It's worth asking why Senators Obama and Biden are opposed to the very same production methods in America that they advocate for other nations. Usually, the answer we hear is that they fear environmental harm from domestic production, especially in the case of offshore drilling. But there's a big problem here, even if we take their argument on its own terms. Technology has made production far cleaner than was once thought possible — by use of such methods as horizontal drilling, carbon capture and storage, and enhanced recovery. And those cleaner, safer technologies are far likelier to be used in the United States and Canada than by China, India, or other developing nations.

So policies that forego domestic production don't protect our environment. They simply accelerate and reward dirtier and more dangerous methods of production elsewhere, in countries that apply few if any environmental safeguards. While our opponents like to posture as defenders of the environment, in practice their refusal to support more domestic production does more harm than good.

As for our coal resources, America has more coal than the oil riches of Saudi Arabia. Burning coal cleanly is a challenge of practical problem-solving and human ingenuity — and we have no shortage of those in America either. So, in a McCain administration, we will commit two billion dollars each year, until 2024, to clean-coal research, development, and deployment. We will refine the techniques and equipment. We will deliver not only electricity but jobs to some of the areas hardest hit by our economic troubles.

And in the end, with or without the green light from Joe the Six-Term Senator, we will make clean coal a reality. For the sake of our nation's security and our prosperity, we need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers.

To meet America's great energy challenge, John and I will adopt an "all of the above" approach. In our administration, that will mean harnessing alternative sources of energy, like wind and solar. We will end subsidies and tariffs that drive prices up, and provide tax credits indexed to low automobile carbon emissions. We will encourage Americans to be part of the solution by taking steps in their everyday lives that conserve more and use less. And we will control greenhouse gas emissions by giving American businesses new incentives and new rewards to seek, instead of just giving them new taxes to pay and new orders to follow.

On energy policy, our opponents are always talking about things we cannot do, because our own government won't let us. When you look over the energy plans of Barack Obama and his allies in Congress, it's just a long, labored agenda of inaction. And it's the same agenda of inaction we could expect under the one-party rule of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. They're always talking about things we can't do in America, energy we can't produce, refineries we can't build, plants we can't approve, coal we cannot use, technologies we cannot master. As John McCain has observed, for a guy's who's slogan is "Yes, we can," Barack Obama's energy plan sure has a whole lot of "No we can't."

Again and again, our opponents say that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems — as if we all didn't know that already. But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.

No, we can't "drill our way out of the problem" entirely. But this is America, the most resourceful country on earth, and we can drill, and refine, and mine, enrich, reprocess, invent, build, conserve, grow, and use every available means to regain our independence.

The mission of energy security will demand great things of our country. It will require commitment, resolve, and political courage. And John McCain is a man who knows something about hard missions, about overcoming dangers and keeping faith with his country. The stakes are high, and complete success will not come quickly. But I can promise you this: Unless we begin this mission now, the only change we'll see is a change for the worse. And when we do succeed in the hard work ahead, our children will live in a more prosperous country, in a more peaceful world. Thank you all very much, and God bless America.