Palin partisan getting jump on 2012

MARION - Harlan Muth isn't organizing Sarah Palin's presidential campaign, but pledges as soon as someone does, "I'll be with 'em.

In the meantime, the Marion maintenance contractor is turning heads with his "Sarah Palin 2012" poster prominently displayed on his van.

"It's getting a fantastic response," Muth, 63, said. "So many people give me the thumbs up or honk when they see it. Some people get out of their cars and ask me where they can get a poster."

Muth, who spent 23 years in the Air Force before settling down in Marion, couldn't find a Palin 2012 sign, so he had a local shop make one for him.

He put it on his van between the November 2008 election and Barack Obama's inauguration. He plans to display it indefinitely.

"A lot of people have had their fill of Obama-ism," he said, adding that after seeing his sign some people tell him they are beginning to regret their vote for the president. "They'll say, 'Isn't it a shame what he's doing?'"

Palin's announcement that she will resign as governor of Alaska this summer doesn't faze Muth. He'll keep his poster prominently displayed.

"Oh, you bet," he said, adding he assumes her decision means she's running for president in 2012.

Palin hasn't said she will run, but she has dropped enough hints to fuel speculation she will use the attention she received as John McCain's running mate last year as a springboard to her own presidential campaign. A number of draft Palin web sites have sprouted. Earlier this year Iowans received phone calls asking if they had a favorable opinion of Palin and whether they agreed with her on several issues. Palin's SarahPAC said it was not responsible for the calls.

There's no particular issue that attracts Muth to Palin. He wants to see her run because "she has her head screwed on straight."

"Some of the others ought to take lessons from her," he said, adding that as president, "she'd do it right."

Not surprisingly, Muth's sentiment isn't shared by everyone. Some people driving by his house honk and scream at him when they see the sign.

"They're too yellow to confront me, I guess," he said.

Muth, who does home and commercial maintenance, says no one has turned him away when they've seen the poster on his van.