More on Palin

Interesting thoughts on Palin (and McCain's choice of Palin) from the Economist here.

A discussion of Palin's version of "western" evangelical Christianity and how it differs from "southern" evangelical Christianity here. I had not noticed the distinction the author makes before but I think it is correct in terms of mean differences.

I find myself giving Palin bonus points for being from the "great pacific northwest" (as KOMO radio used to call it when I was growing up). I probably should not.

At a broader level, I have realized in pondering Palin that I think about the east coast in opposition to the west coast in the same way that the American founders (and many who came after them) thought about Europe in opposition to the New World, namely as a sort of old, decadent, corrupt, over-governed and less free place that should be avoided (if you do not start out there) and escaped from (if you do). This then leads to a tendency to prefer politicians from the western states to those from the east coast, all else equal. I haven't really thought about this habit in my thinking explicitly before so I will have to watch out for it in future.