NP: Frank Zappa, The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life

Steve Benen flags two comments around Sarah Palin's "pro-America" rhetoric, one serious and one trying to be clever, but as usual, it's Nate Silver who absolutely nails it to the wall with a devastating analysis.

Since her coming out in Dayton, Ohio on August, 29th, Palin has held (or is scheduled to hold) public events in 44 cities according to the Slate.com candidate tracker. These include all events described as "rallies", "town halls", "gatherings" or "discussions", but not things like press availabilities, fundraisers or debates.

I looked at the racial composition of these 44 cities as according to the 2000 census.** They are, on average, 81.0 percent non-Hispanic white, 8.4 percent black, 6.0 percent Hispanic, and 4.5 percent "other". By comparison, the US population in 2000 was 69.1 percent white, 12.1 percent black, 12.5 percent Hispanic, and 6.3 percent other. Thirty-four of Palin's 44 cities were whiter than the US average.

Pretty clever, from a research point of view. And, also, OUCH.