Iowa = Illinois

In Iowa yesterday, Obama said he thinks he may have an advantage in Iowa: the fact that he lives next door.

"I feel like I'm home," Obama told the Associated Press. "Illinois is basically Iowa, and then we have Chicago."

Plenty of coastal residents lump all the Midwest provinces together, as "those square states" one flies over on the way from one shore to another. But it's unusual to hear folks from the Heartland do it themselves.

I doubt people in Iowa are going to like the comment that it's basically the same as Illinois. And people in Illinois but not in Chicago continously complained they're forgotten to Chicago.