I thought this posed the problem very well (Though Bush fits well in the aristocracy part himself, he ran as if he was an ordinary man).
http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/blog.php?id=161
The President: On Soma--or in a Coma?
BY RUSS WELLEN
12.02.2005 08:07 | DISPATCHES
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson, who's set a new benchmark for administration turncoats, says President Bush was "too aloof, too distant from the details" of post-war planning.
...
After Bush's speech at the Naval Academy Wednesday the New York Times commented, in an editorial no less:
"A president who seems less in touch with reality than Richard Nixon needs to get out more."
...
At first, the one positive that could be drawn from his "election" in 2000 was that the US, once and for all, had finally outgrown its infatuation with royalty and aristocracy.
Patrician types like John Kerry start out with two strikes against them. Franklin Roosevelt, not to mention Washington or Jefferson, might not even make it out of the electoral starting gate today. Also lost in the wash, however, is intellect. Not only do we shy away from those of a higher station, but those of greater intelligence.
The times are way too challenging for the US to do the Ronald Reagan-figurehead thing anymore. We need a president who's engaged, like even Richard Nixon (if a little too invested, as they say, per recently released White House tapes)....