Why is it always "The Great state of [insert state name here]?"

Everywhere one turns in US media, when some personage is introduced they're almost invariably from "the Great state of Kentucky", or "the Great state of Vermont", etc. Or when pols are yakking about folk somewhere; it's always the "Great" state they live in.

If they're *all* Great, then none are. Why this odd affectation? What other self-confident nation does this? Up here, we don't have peeps being hailed in this smarmy fashion as from "the Great province of Saskatchewan." If they are, it's seldom enough to maybe mean something.