1,000 brave the cold for Palin’s visit to Michigan

If Sarah Palin is still furious about the "sexist" Newsweek cover depicting her in running shorts - a photograph originally shot for Runner's World - she wasn't showing it when she arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan yesterday on the first stop of her Going Rogue book-signing tour.

"I just can't tell you how good it is to be back in Michigan," she told a crowd of more than 1,000 waiting at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in the Woodland Mall. "Alaska and Michigan have so much in common, with the huntin' and the fishin' and the hockey moms, and just the hardworking, patriotic Americans who are here."

Chanting "Palin! Palin! Palin!" the crowd had waited for hours in the cold for the Palin tour bus to arrive.

"She's a person of faith, she has a family, she has gone through a lot of the trials and tribulations we have. I'd vote for her in a heartbeat," said Lana Smith, who had taken the day off work at the local bus company.

"Someday I hope her name is up in lights and I'll have had the privilege of meeting her," Smith said.

Tom Maike, who wore a button on his baseball cap that said, "Don't blame me, I voted for Sarah," had been queuing since 1.0 in the morning. He planned to buy two copies of Going Rogue and keep one for himself and give the other to his sister or his daughter - "whichever one talks me out of it".

Maike was one of many who told reporters they would vote for Palin if she decides to run for the presidency in 2012.

"I believe she's a good, strong person to do the things we need to do in this country," said 70-year-old David Zak. "I like her Christian philosophy. I like that she's pro-life. I believe she can do what needs to be done to get ahead."

All of which was a long way from the controversy surrounding the new issue of Newsweek, with its cover line 'How do you solve a problem like Sarah?' plastered across that contentious photo.

Palin explained on her Facebook page how the picture had originally been shot for a profile in Runner's World magazine which was "all about health and fitness - a subject to which I am devoted and which is critically important to this nation."

She went on: "The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now... The media will do anything to draw attention - even if out of context."

Newsweek has since countered that it chose a cover that was "most interesting". But that has cut no ice with Palin's supporters.

Speaking to the Fox TV presenter Sean Hannity, the former Bush era White House press secretary Dana Perino said: "I think it's worse than sexist. I think it is demeaning and degrading and Newsweek knew exactly what it was doing. They made sexuality a part of her performance.

"And this is something that if it had happened to someone on the left, the feminist organisations would be screaming about."