Last week, a Crawford, Texas newspaper, the Lone Star Iconoclast, endorsed John Kerry. Crawford is, of course, George W. Bush’s hometown, and there are those who would have us believe that the Lone Star Iconoclast’s endorsement of Kerry translates to a rejection of the president by those in his own stomping ground:

It has to be a kick in the butt for President Bush to have a newspaper in Crawford, Texas endorsing John Kerry. I’m also guessing The Lone Star Iconoclast’s circulation and subscriptions are going to increase dramatically when the Democrats get wind of this news. This issue of The Lone Star Iconoclast announcing their endorsement of John Kerry over George W. Bush is going to quickly become a collector’s item that may be worth thousands of dollars if President Bush loses the election in November.

Hold your horses, there, bucko. The good people of Crawford aren’t necessarily represented by W. Leon Smith, the publisher of the Iconoclast:

In Crawford, also known as the Western White House, the editorial was not welcome.

"My immediate response was to call the paper and cancel our subscription to that paper and tell them to never call us again for another ad," said (local shop owner Larry) Nelson.

Other store owners along Main street in Crawford agreed with Nelson's response. Everyone we spoke with believed that the President has done more for the city than anyone in recent memory, basically reviving their once dried up economy. In the process, the President has also created a community where he knows he is welcome.

Now, contrast all of that to today’s endorsement of the president by the Lowell Sun, a local newspaper in John Kerry’s Massachusetts hometown. The editorial reads, in part:

We in Massachusetts know John Kerry. He got his first taste of politics 32 years ago in the cities and towns of Greater Lowell.

Kerry's solution to stop terrorism? He'd go to the U.N. and build a consensus. How naive. France's Jacques Chirac, Germany's Gerhard Schroeder, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and other Iraq oil-for-food scam artists don't want America to succeed. They want us brought down to their level. And more and more, Kerry sounds just like them. In a recent campaign speech, Kerry said America was in the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

No doubt John Kerry sincerely wants to serve his country, but we believe he's the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Unlike the situation in Crawford, Texas, it seems that the low opinion of Senator Kerry is shared by the people in his hometown. Gary Younge writes the following for the Guardian:

"People here saw him as a carpetbagger and an opportunist back then (while campaigning in the ‘70’s)," says Kendall Wallace, who covered the campaign for the Lowell Sun at the time. And in troubling echoes of the current race Lowell adds: "And when he was attacked he didn't fight back." Mr Kerry went from a 54% to 21% lead in the polls to defeat. It was the last election he would ever lose.

Maybe the Kerrys have just rubbed the locals the wrong way:

Outside the (Kerry) house is a space where a fire hydrant used to be. In 1997, after his wife, Teresa, racked up huge parking fines for blocking the hydrant, they had it moved, prompting citywide fury.

"You're talking about two of the most sensitive issues in the city," says Susan Orlean, a New Yorker writer who lives in Boston. "Parking and anything to do with the fire department, which is revered only second to the church. It could only have been worse if she'd asked a priest to bless it."

"The whole incident resonated as a sense of their entitlement and arrogance," says Jon Keller, political analyst for the local television station, WB56. "He's the least liked political figure in the state. Nobody around here has ever warmed up to him."

Although this passage comes midway through the piece, it’s as good a summary as any:

Go to Hope, Arkansas (ancestral home of Bill Clinton) in 1992, or Russell, Kansas, in 1996 where the huge grain silo announced "Home of Bob Dole" (the Republican candidate of that year), and you could witness the civic pride borne from a native son who had become a presidential contender.

Come to Boston now, however, and you are struck by the blend of ennui and indifference that the local boy is up for the big prize.