On March 4 I did a column on the strangeness of Oregon. Here is a further example: Obama gets a quite literally huge crowd in Portland. The estimated turnout equals something like 15% of the entire population of Portland. The New York Times article includes a photo of the event that looks like turnout for the Pope or the Rose Parade.
That a youngish lawyer with an America-hating, counterculture mother, an absentee Islamic father, and a chip-on-the-shoulder America-hating wife, whose political experience is based mostly on advocacy in the fever swamp of Chicago identity group politics and whose few identifiable political stands are to the left of Ted Kennedy can draw such a large crowd is testament to Oregon's weirdness. Oregon is definitely Twin Peaks country.
