Alaska governor and Republican vice president hopeful Sarah Palin is returning to Indiana on Wednesday, according to the John McCain campaign Web site. The program begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Capstone Realty building in Jeffersonville. Doors open at 4:30 p.m.

Attendees at Fort Wayne's rally with Palin on Saturday night at Memorial Coliseum are likely to wish Jeffersonville supporters better luck at getting through security than what they experienced.

Randy Brown, general manager of the coliseum, said the Secret Service told him they could get 2,400 people through all the security checks per hour.

The coliseum entrance doors didn't open until nearly 4:30 p.m. for the public. The math can tell the story why at 6:30 p.m., 5,000 people - many were families with young children as well as older adults - were still standing in the cold outside.

“I finally had to tell the Secret Service we have people outside with babies and young children,” he said, noting the Secret Service told him they were understaffed to process people through security more quickly.

The first 5,000 or so who entered were initially screened in an airport security walk-through scanner manned by Traffic Safety Administration personnel. Then, one by one, people were screened with a security wand, turning around, arms outstretched. Dogs sniffed camera bags, purses and diaper bags.

That wasn't the only snafu. When the press were allowed into the main level of the arena to go through security, a coliseum employee, who was to check press IDs and hand out press passes, was overheard saying on a portable radio, “Can someone tell us what we are supposed to be doing. No one has given us any directions.”

Brown said after he recognized that at the rate people were allowed through security, the end of the line would not get into the arena until after 9 p.m. - Palin started speaking about 8 p.m. - he spoke with the Secret Service, who then began doing visual screenings rather than using the security wand on each person.

“This wasn't the coliseum that slowed this process down,” Brown said. “When the Secret Service comes, you basically turn over the keys and say, ‘Yes, sir.' ”

Brown and his staff, looking a bit frazzled after the event, said they were breathing a sigh of relief that everyone finally got it in.