Andrew Cline is quite right. Much as I regret to say it, in 2004, had NH natives been excluded from the polls, the Granite State would have gone for Bush over Kerry. In particular, it was northern rural towns full of plaid-clad weather-beaten cranky crusty pick-up-driving types that gave the Senator his very narrow margin of victory.

That said, I would caution against Rush’s argument yesterday – about writing New Hampshire off as just another effete decadent coastal latte-swilling gay-marriage weekend home untypical of the conservative heartland, just a Studio 54 in the mountains full of transplanted liberals hitting on coked-up moose as they stagger around in search of a restaurant serving something with arugula. NH delivered Bush’s margin of victory in 2000. It remains the north-east’s still-just-about non-liberal state. If the Republican Party can’t come up with a candidate that has some appeal in New Hampshire, its prospects of winning in November are dramatically reduced.

By the way, re ironing my shirt, I feel a vaguely Diana West-ish point coming on that this would be a more mature country if we returned to the days when Main Street was a sea of ironed shirts. Love to flesh the argument out a bit, but I have a, er, pressing engagement.