Did you catch the news clip of Karl Rove extolling Sarah Palin’s experience at mayor of Alaska’s second largest city. Uh, Wasilla? What about the Alaskan cities and towns which we’d heard of before? Anchorage, Nome, Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, etc? Sure enough, Wasilla, with a population of 5,000 ranks around tenth. If that’s saying anything, really. The total population of Alaska is only over a half million.

Of course, Rove knows that his broad brush of Palin will carry more weight than the printed correction. And who’s going to fault him for Alaskan geography?

Which leads to a question about the populations of America’s outlying territories. I know Puerto Rico looks small, you might be tempted to dismiss it like the Marianna islands, without need for representation in DC. But Puerto Rico’s population is twice that of Alaska and Hawaii put together. Why is it not a state? Because if they were allowed to vote, they would secede?

NPR referred to Wasilla as a “city,” although most us would probably consider it a small town. Town hall is in a strip mall.