A North Carolina polling firm apparently had some free time on its hands recently, so they decided to ask a random sampling of a few thousand Americans what they thought about every single state in the country. Good news, Florida: They like us!
Of course most of those polled don't actually live here, and so must not have read the other recent poll results grading us fifth worst for job cuts, third in worst drivers, and sixth most corrupt state.
In the data collected over four months by Public Policy Polling, people were asked whether they either had a positive or negative impression of each state.
Florida scored surprisingly great in the positive category, with 43 percent of respondents saying they had good thoughts about the Sunshine State.
That ranks as the fifth best in the nation. Hawaii ranked first (everyone loves leis), Tennessee came in second (because they have good barbecue?), Alaska ranked third (Really? They don't have daylight for half of the year!), and finally, Virginia took fourth (despite being a bland place full of DC residents).
The five most loathed states were led by none other than our pot-smoking friends in the great state of California, which 44 percent of the voters viewed unfavorably. They must have not gotten the good stuff.
Illinois, New Jersey (no fist pumping for this ranking), Mississippi and Utah were the next four worst perceived states.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, African Americans polled dislike 10 of the 14 Southern states. Don't worry kids. Florida wasn't one of them. (South Florida should probably take credit here for counterbalancing our Confederate-leaning northern reaches).
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