And the Winner Is...I Dunno!

The good folks at Public Policy Polling have determined that a bunch of us dislike California, but we love Hawaii.

In an opinion poll, 44% of the respondents disliked California while only 27% liked it. But 54% liked Hawaii, as opposed to only 10% who disliked it -- and you've got me on what those ten percent would like, since everything I've heard about Hawaii except for the cost of living says it's a pretty nice place.

We Americans are a pretty easy-going bunch on our countrymen and women, as there were only five states in the whole survey with a net unfavorable rating -- the aforementioned California, Illinois, New Jersey, Mississippi and Utah. In fairness, Utah's scored a 24 percent like and a 27 percent dislike, so the margin's pretty close. What about the other 49 percent? Well, they had no opinion. A link on the story will take you to the online full survey results where you can see that.

My own fine state of Oklahoma is viewed mostly favorably by those who have an opinion -- 40% like us, 16% dislike us. But 43% don't think about us one way or the other, and I imagine that, had I been among the respondents, most of my answers would have been the polling equivalent of a shrug.

I think favorably of states where I know people, but that really means I think favorably of the people I know. I have family and friends in Illinois, so I think favorably of Illinois, despite the fact that the drive from St. Louis to Chicago is the longest five hours in the known universe and the state has a host of economic problems that would make some aspects of living there not nearly as much fun as my own abode. I've got family in and a favorable view of Oregon, too, even though they won't let you pump your own gas and most of the parts of the state that I've ever visited were damp, cramped and on a hill and the whole town of Portland looks like it just donated blood.

But I'm glad most people liked us, although I'm curious about where that 16 percent came from. The most logical suspect is Texas, but Texas' 25 million people make up only about 8 percent of the total U.S. population so there's a missing eight percent in there.

Unless they voted twice? Those sneaky Texans...