Voting for President is being confused with Voting for Prom Court

Why does the Republican base like Sarah Palin so much? She is simple. The base of Republican America sees the same qualities in Palin that they saw and liked in Bush in 2000. She shares their lifestyle, their beliefs, their virtues and their flaws. Traditionally elitist Republicans like George Will do not approve of the movement towards simplistic, down-home, anti-establishment candidates for the highest office in the land, and they have good reason.

With regard to the anti-establishment view David Brooks of the New York Times writes, "I would have more sympathy for this view if I hadn’t just lived through the last eight years. For if the Bush administration was anything, it was the anti-establishment attitude put into executive practice. And the problem with this attitude is that, especially in his first term, it made Bush inept at governance. It turns out that governance, the creation and execution of policy, is hard. It requires acquired skills. Most of all, it requires prudence."
Later in this well written column Brooks also mentions how Bush and Palin compensate for their lack of experience with "brashness" and "excessive decisiveness."

The unsuccessfulness of the Bush presidency showed the Washington elite the danger of letting stubborn, inexperienced politicians take over Washington. But small town Republican voters do not evaluate leadership in the same way. They base their votes on instincts; on the likeability and school-of-life knowledge of a candidate. In their minds a quality formal education merits nothing short of disdain.

Before thinking critically about the idea of regular people taking control of Washington I was not so concerned. I thought it was only fair that ordinary citizens be allowed to choose candidates who are most closely connected with them, but I was wrong. We should want better leadership for our country than ourselves. We must trust that although Barack Obama was President of the Harvard Law Review and we never will be, that he knows how to solve our nation's dilemmas with the expedience and prudence beyond that of a simple hockey mom or a rancher. They may embody familiar traits and values, but those qualities are not what we should strive to find in a Commander and Chief. Although Sarah Palin is not running for President, she represents the overarching "anti-elite" chorus that is rising throughout Middle America and scaring prudent Republicans and Liberals alike.

PLEASE READ David Brook's concise column that I referred to in my post
it is well worth your time