Yeah, I think the area I live in also prefers the politicians who look more educated. I wonder if it's the positions they get elected to that makes the difference (it's easier to think of a President letting power go to his/her head, for one thing) or just where we live. Apparently my hometown is where successful middle/upper-middle class people who work in Hartford but don't want to live in the city dwell, and those successful parents really push their kids to get good educations and be overachievers, so I can see how voters around here would be much more impressed by someone who was well-spoken, well-dressed, and well-educated than by someone who emphasized how much of a "regular Joe" s/he was--if only because we have an image as a town that values success an education that we want to maintain and take pride in.

And I have to admit, sometimes people around here do get a "We know better than those uneducated rednecks!" attitude that I'm sure people in the "red states" resent and want to rebel against somehow...