Best for the Best Lyrics

Lyric discussion by wookie007 

Cover art for Best for the Best lyrics by Josh Ritter

on the live cd/dvd 'in the dark' josh introduces this song "this song is dedicated to mark twain, who said loyalty to your country always, loyalty to your government when it deserves it". which makes me think there's a political subtext here that i'm missing. anyone noticed the huge number of mark twain allusions in josh's songs?