For our local "newspapers," Tuesday was dedicated to selling Trump and the Republicans to the local readers. You couldn't miss it. The locals invested in a 600+ word, inconsequential , front-page article in both "newspapers"(taking up about one-half of the front-page news space) plus an afternoon editorial; both of which told us how "WV [is] Playing a Major Role in Trump RNC Nomination."

Here's is the logic and evidence cited by the locals that proves Trump and the GOP "are making it plain they do not intend to forget about us:"

1. West Virginia's votes may clinch Trump's nomination. Why West Virginians should care or be proud of this was never explained. If you watched the proceedings last night, the states voted in alphabetical order and New York clinched it for Trump. (I don't think that Trump and the Republicans had anything to do with the letter W's placement in the alphabet -- my understanding is that the alphabet is arranged, you know, alphabetically.) Beyond that -- who cares which state clinched it? (I think the Intelligencer simply made this reason up.)

2. The West Virginia delegation was given great seats (for those readers outside the Wheeling area --I am not making this up):

The 34-member state delegation has been seated near the front on the convention floor, and is close to the center podium. Speakers at the convention will look out to see the West Virginia delegates at their right.

According to both the article and editorial, this should make all West Virginians proud. Of what? ("Hey, other states may have more jobs or better average income but can they match our seats at the Republican National Convention? I don't think so!") Again, who cares?

And 3. Senator Capito was chosen to give a convention speech:

Sen. Shelley Capito, R-W.Va., is one of just four convention speakers touted by the party as giving “headliner” addresses tonight.

Given Republican defections (anybody seen Governor Kasich lately?), maybe there weren't that many Republican senators or governors left to choose from. Which gets us to Wednesday's coverage. Today's morning and afternoon front-page article, "Sen. Capito in Primetime Spotlight," reviewed her speech and restated some of the Tuesday claims. (West Virginians had seats close to the podium!) Capito's speech was essentially anti-Clinton and had next-to-nothing to say about the Republican nominee. Over half of today's news article consists of Capito's exact words and there is no balance in the article. For balance you had to go elsewhere.

For example, CNN fact-checked and found that her claim that Clinton had said that she would put coal miners out of work was true (I think we knew that) and that Obama caused the loss of 60,000 coal mining jobs since 2011 was false. The Washington Post's reviewer wasn't that impressed either:

The speech she gave was too long and felt sort of forced; "let's turn the tide," felt blah to the crowd. Also, how many gratuitous West Virginia references did she work in there?

One of the better reactions to Capito's speech may have come from Hunter, who was live blogging her speech at the liberal Daily Kos:

Capito is kinda all over the map on this one. Started talking about jobs, moved on to Clinton emails, back to jobs, back to Clinton. . . . she may figure that 2-3 sentences about jobs at a time is all these people will put up with before their next Hillary-hate fix.

If you're still interested in Capito's speech, the best extended analysis of her speech is easily David Gutman's in this morning's Charleston Gazette-Mail. Gutman summarizes the speech and comments upon her attacks including providing links to the evidence she uses.

I'm sorry. Despite their often-used editorial strategy of complimenting West Virginians for being smarter than the rest of the country, these articles and editorial suggest just the opposite -- that our "newspapers" see us as dumb as a bag of hammers and easily distracted by the most superficial of appeals including a near-Pavlovian response to the word "Clinton." "Wow, you mean West Virginians got good seats and everyone will see us vote for Trump? And they're going to let Shelley give a speech? Donald Trump certainly deserves my vote." They're pathetic.