I wonder if our seeming obsession with electing a president who is ‘like us’ is in part due ways the culture has changed due to technology changes such as television and the internet. I would think that a scholar of presidential campaigns could show that a candidate’s relatibililty has been an issue before, but now we seem to act like its the most important thing, whether the candidate ‘knows’ us. Realistically no candidate can relate to all parts of the country, and it takes a very ambitious and usually smart person to run for president. I think it would be better to focus on how the person makes decisions, like do they consider multiple points of view etc. I heard one person suggest that instead of debates, we should have the candidates perform under simulated conditions to see how they’d do in the job. Probably a bit too much like reality TV, but might be better than arguing over who’s an elitist and who’s not.