Fortune smiled on Michele Maves at Thursday’s Sarah Palin rally in Bangor.

The Knoxville, Tenn., resident just happened to be in Maine this week, visiting family members in Freeport and Oxford, when she learned that Palin was going to appear.

Not only that, but country and western singer Lee Greenwood, who also lives in Tennessee, was going to be with Palin.

Maves, a huge Greenwood fan, got tickets for herself and a friend, and the two hauled themselves out of bed at 3 a.m. and arrived bright and early to secure a spot inside Hangar 11 at Bangor International Airport.

They heard Greenwood lead the crowd in singing the national anthem and perform “God Bless the U.S.A.,” his signature 1984 hit. Best of all, Greenwood was standing by the door when Maves and her friend were leaving.

She thrust a McCain/Palin placard into his hands and came away with Greenwood’s autograph.

“We are so excited,” Maves said as she displayed Greenwood’s sprawling signature.

From the heart

Joe Fredette probably won the honor of bringing the most imposing sign to the rally.

Fredette, a general contractor from Bar Harbor, devoted Wednesday to cutting a wooden heart about four feet across out of a piece of paneling. He spray painted it shocking pink, then hand-lettered in a neat script the word “Sarah” across the middle of the sign.

Nailed onto an 8-foot long pole, the heart loomed over Fredette’s head. “I love Sarah,” Fredette smiled. “She’s honest. She’s smart.”

Electoral watch

Republicans say they think the McCain/Palin ticket has a chance to win Maine, but they’ll have to do a lot more than that if a leading independent polling firm is correct.

A new poll of electoral college votes by Zogby International reports that several key battleground states have moved into the Obama column, including Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Mexico.

The poll shows Maine as an Obama state.

According to Zogby, the Democrats are ahead in enough states to give them 273 electoral votes, and they need just 270 to capture the election.

Pollster John Zogby said that in order for the Republicans to win, they need to take back at least one state from the Democrats and win all eight of the remaining undecided states.

The Zogby data was based on 11 interactive polls conducted from Oct. 9-13, with margins of error ranging from 2.9 percentage points to 4.7 percentage points.