the "intellectual elites" vs. Sarah Palin

I have just been shaking my head several times over the last several days or week or so to see so many of the so-called conservative "intelligentsia" either diss Sarah Palin or fall all over themselves with praise for Barack Obama. In the latter category are people such as David Brooks of the NY Times and in the former category is Peggy Noonan. Noonan wrote an opinion piece against Sarah Palin. I used to really think Peggy Noonan was great, but know I think that she is just as bad as some of my friends who appalled by Sarah Palin for reasons that I think I'm gradually coming to understand. Palin didn't graduate from an Ivy League school. She didn't work for years in Washington. She just doesn't fit the mold of what a good intellectual OR (equally acceptable to some people) Washington insider should be. For myself, I'll take honesty, common sense, and an appreciation of traditional American values any day of the week over some Ivy League college degree. Heck, to me, the latter is a negative mark. I think it is just sad that so many people seem to have gotten their thoughts twisted into pretzels in the bizarre notion that the Ivy League degree and/or Washington experience is superior to honesty and common sense. Come Election Day, I just hope there are more people who agree with me.