I came from a state where 35 percent self-identify as Tea Partiers, so I'm a bit distorted perhaps in my appreciation for the larger American population.
I really reject that kind of comparison that says, Oh, he is the best. This is the second best. There is no such thing.
I come from a wonderful family. My mother was a pianist and my father was a salesman. They were very middle-class, very middle-Western.