Bee, the remark about Sarah Palin was not intended as an insult to folk in small towns or Alaska. I grew up in the country 10 miles from the nearest town and have now lived in a town of less than 3000 people for over 30 years. I also live in Arkansas. Many have served overseas in the armed forces. We have had a paved road into this area for almost 60 years. We have had television reception for just over 30 years and now have relatively fast internet connections. I am here because I choose to live in a small town. We have had some mayors who have done very well and others who did some things well and were sometimes downright embarrassing. Our present mayor made the statewide news when he complained about hearing a foreign language in Wal-Mart. I was close friends of one of men who served as mayor. I would not consider sending any of them to Washington. I know a provincial attitude. I would guess that close to 60% of the people in this area have a provincial view on state-wide and world-wide affairs.

My reference was to Palin not every citizen of Alaska and was focused on her attitude and image. She may have been an excellent mayor and may even be a good governor. She may be a generous, caring person, but the image she presented was of someone who knew nothing about a world outside of your state or about urban culture.

In interviews that I watched, her ineptitude in talking about national and global issues was laughable. She ridiculed serious work that was done by Obama indicating she either knew nothing of inner city culture or if she did, it was something she held in contempt. She may be more than what she has appeared to be, and I certainly hope so, but she did nothing to give anyone a favorable impression of the people who either live small towns or in Alaska. If campaign managers created the image that she presented they made a serious mistake. From observations and conversations, I gather that people thought Sarah Palin was refreshing and found her charming in provincial sort of way, but they would not send her to Washington.