Al Franken, Midwestern Farmboy. . .

. . .explains to us why the whole notion of the "elitist blue states" is absurd:

"The right-wing media pounds and pounds this stuff about elitist liberal blue states versus the down-to-earth red states. It's ridiculous. I'm from Minnesota. I grew up in suburbia, in a working-class neighborhood. So I think I have some feel for middle America. In reality, all the states are some shade of purple. There's plenty of very conservative Christians in Minnesota, and there's plenty of liberals in Texas. It's not as clear-cut as people like Sean Hannity make it seem when he holds up a map and says, 'See how much red there is?' A lot of those red spots are desert. And, as David Owen from the New Yorker said: Acreage don't vote; people vote."

I'll accept Al's claim to having a "feel for middle America" as soon as he accepts my claim to an understanding of war strategy, since my dad is a retired Navy CPO.