...and I might actually have to vote for him -- read "I have to vote against McCain" -- anyway.

Anybody who has seen a small group of deer grazing in a wheat or corn field, or witnessed what unchecked rabbits do to a vegetable crop, or heard feral cats in the chicken house, will understand why small-town Pennsylvanians "cling" to their guns.

Small towns in PA are tiny patches of sidewalk in an otherwise rural environment. I can leave my office, in the heart of "downtown" (I grew up in a city, and it still tickles me that people here think I work "downtown"), walk for two miles in any direction, and wind up at a farm. North, it's horses; east and south, dairy; and west, orchards and a vinyard. If I keep walking, chickens, pigs, vegetables, and grain.

For the uninitiated, small-town PA describes the many, many municipalities that are about 7 miles or less in approximate circumference, surrounded by highways, farms, and either rivers or forested mountains. These towns may have industry, though it's chiefly connected to agriculture or mining, which benefit from proximity to their sources. This town has feed mills, food processing plants that depend on being close to dairy and vegetable farms, a quarry, a hatchery, and a meat processing facility (also "downtown") connected to a sizable butcher shop. Otherwise, the community's employment picture includes the people who work for the schools and the churches, those who work in the retail establishments that serve the community, health care workers, a smattering of professionals like doctors and lawyers and journalists, and government employees (e.g., postal carriers and police officers). This is pretty typical.

The town I live in is also close enough to a couple of electrical generating plants and a small college, which provide other sources of employment for professional people. This town benefits greatly, because those employers bring more education and cash to the area. Not all PA small towns have that.

We have agricultural workers here from Latin America. Nobody throws rocks at them or thinks they're taking jobs away from locals. Nobody wants them sent away. They help the food processors get their raw materials in.

We do have some religious idiots, but I wouldn't say the number was greater, proportionally, than anywhere else in the US. The fact that the place is small enough so most of us know each other makes a difference. When it gets ugly, it can't help but get personal. That means all the intensity of urban quarrels, but a lot more painful.

It's true that, 15 years ago, one saw lots fewer non-white faces in town, but that has changed too, as it's changed throughout the state. The introduction of new cultural approaches will cause tension wherever it happens, but make no mistake: long-time residents look with suspicion on "newcomers", whoever they are. I've been here for over 20 years, and I'm still a "newcomer", with my blue eyes and transparent Irish skin, because none of my family is in a local graveyard. Race has nothing to do with it, though I can see how a black person treated like a "newcomer" could easily come to that conclusion because of the experience she or he brings along already.

Times are tough, and have been, there's no question. People are frustrated, it's true. Money is tight, that's a fact. But to attribute characteristics of the communities and the people in them to their disappointment in the Federal government is just ignorant. When people in PA get upset at The Government, they're talking about Harrisburg, except on and around April 15, or when talking about foreign policy. Which we do, occasionally, when we can shake ourselves out of our Bible-thumpin' gun-totin' furriner-hatin' cross-burnin' knuckle-draggin' stupor.

Perhaps Obama was playing to the crowd he addressed in San Francisco, who apparently think we are all part of the supporting cast of Groundhog Day. I daresay I think he was doing just that, not knowing that someone had paid for a ticket in order to bring a tape recorder as his date. In any case, there's no doubt he was the very soul of the Democrats' mascot when he kissed up to the moneyed Californians at the expense of small-town Pennsylvanians.

Did I mention that I was insulted?