East meets West

For two weeks, a bastion of Eastern opinion will hear from a voice of the West. Patricia Limerick, of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, is filling in for columnist Maureen Dowd on the New York Times editorial page while Dowd is on vacation.

In her first column, Limerick wrote, “The American West, Wallace Stegner once wrote in one of the region’s most quoted aphorisms, is ‘the native home of hope.’ Having put this very cheerful sentiment on public record, Mr. Stegner soon began to wonder what on earth had possessed him.”

She also noted, “Consult the platform and mainstream positions of either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party and, on the issues that matter most to the West, you will find yourself contemplating the yawning interior of Mother Hubbard’s cupboard.”