DC Residents are UnAmerican. Who knew?

Feel free to call me crazy on this one, but I can't help but read Sarah Palin's recent statement about the "best of America" as applying, more than is usual for politician-speak, to DC residents rather than just the federal government:

"We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe" -- here the audience interrupted Palin with applause and cheers -- "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation."

I agree with her that there's something really great about American small towns, when they're not just strip-malls. But there's something just as real and just as great about growing up in DC. Furthermore, just because a place (or a person) overwhelmingly refuses to vote for you doesn't mean that they're unamerican. With all due respect, my natural patriotic inclinations probably outstrip Palin's. I mean, hell, I was enough of a nerdy pro-America kid to force my parents to hang a flag outside our house in the early '90s, and memorize all four verses of the Star Spangled Banner. The notion that I'm somehow less American than someone else because of where I happened to grow up isn't just insulting, it's stupid. It's bad politics.