And That's Good Enough for Me

"'We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity,' the vice-presidential candidate said, quoting an anonymous 'writer,' which is to say, Pegler, who must have penned that mellifluous line when not writing his more controversial stuff. As the New York Times pointed out in its obituary of him in 1969, Pegler once lamented that a would-be assassin 'hit the wrong man' when gunning for Franklin Roosevelt.
"There's no evidence that Mrs. Palin shares the trademark Pegler bloodlust--except maybe when it comes to moose and wolves. Nevertheless, the red-state myth that Mrs. Palin reiterated for her adoring audience owes far more to the venomous spirit of Pegler than it does to Norman Rockwell."

Thomas Frank in The Wall Street Journal sees through the Republican ticket's small-town-values sham.