Over the years we've found there are two ways to get people upset with our coverage of the news in the local newspaper. Either say something about a subject, or don't say something about a subject.

The editor was taken to task last week for our headline noting that John McCain had long "coat-tails" in the Macon County voting results. This view was based on the fact that McCain beat Obama 5-2 here, and Republican state house candidate Terri Weaver trounced Cleveland Bain by a nearly 2-1 vote in Macon County.

Weaver's winning margin in DeKalb County was just 105 votes; in her home county of Smith, the margin was 710 votes; in Macon County, Weaver received 2,003 more votes than her Democratic rival.

The definition of "coat-tails" is a reference to riding the wave of a popular candidate's draw at the polls; there was a huge McCain wave in our county that helped give Weaver more than two-thirds of her victory margin over Bain. She would still have won if it had been a two-county race, but by only 815 votes.

As it was, with Macon County's overwhelming Republican turnout, the margin was 2,818. That is a landslide margin and we congratulate Ms. Weaver on her victory.

Another reader takes us to the woodshed this week, for not trumpeting the historic victory nationwide of Barack Obama, and leading our election week edition with the local story of a hard-fought state house race instead.

We are unapologetic for this local approach. Everyone who was not hiding under a rock knew on Wednesday morning that history had been made. But a weekly community paper must needs concentrate on local news.

It would be presumptuous for us to do otherwise.