Through a barren garden center, down racks of CDs and DVDs, along aisles of clearance grills and charcoal and up rows of holiday wreaths and bows, hundreds of eager autograph-seekers snaked through the shelving inside the Meijer superstore at 10301 Maysville Road on Thursday, waiting for a 15-second shot to meet 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and have a book signed.

Not just any book, of course, but Palin's memoir, “Going Rogue.”

The book-signing drew some 1,200 supporters of the former GOP vice presidential nominee and Alaska governor, one Meijer official estimated. Some had lined up the night before to ensure they'd meet Palin and get her signature on their books.

The scene inside Meijer was chaotic at times, requiring 16 Allen County police officers, dozens of Meijer personnel and Palin's personal security team and handlers for crowd control.

But while there was controlled havoc outside Palin's curtained-off signing area, those in line seemed happy and excited to meet the woman with whom most felt on a first-name basis.

“What do you think brought us out? Sarah,” Carolyn Franzdorf of Defiance, Ohio, said when asked why she was there. “If Obama was here, I'd still be in Defiance, and that's the truth.

“I'd only make the trip to Fort Wayne from Defiance for Sarah. I've liked her forever.”

She's not the only one.

Sharon Grimes traveled from South Bend to meet Palin, with three copies of “Going Rogue” that she had purchased from Amazon.com, but in accordance with the book-signing rules that had Palin signing only books bought at Meijer, Grimes bought two more Thursday at the store.

Well worth it, it seems.

“She's great,” Grimes said. “She's got the common people's touch, and we love her. She doesn't sound like a highfalutin' politician. She wants to save us from ourselves and she wants to give us the opportunities to be free.”

Palin's apparent connection with the “common folk” has endeared her to the masses.

“I like what she stands for, what she brings to politics,” said city resident Bob Koorsen while zigzagging the line and reading the book, making it through a good portion of Palin's childhood while waiting. “She's got a more common approach, outside the beltway.”

City resident Mark Little said he's so tantalized with Palin and her book that “it will be the first book I've ever read.”

It took an afternoon talk show to sell Roanoke resident Traci Starn on “Going Rogue.”

“I think that Sarah's a very strong woman, and we need more people like her leading our country,” Starn said. “I haven't started reading yet, but I watched her interview with Oprah, and I was sold. I'm sure that her book will be very good.”

Palin arrived at the Meijer store just after noon, pulling riding around the back of the superstore in her gigantic “Going Rogue” tour bus before hopping off to quickly begin signing copies. Sheriff's officers taped off the rear of the building, where the bus was parked during the three-hour signing.

Palin then left for a Noblesville signing later that day.