One of the advantages that moose-hunting, supper-cooking, church-attending Sarah Palin brings to the Republican ticket is her ability to connect with everyday people. Even friends and family members who avoid talking politics have gushed to me, "Palin is just like us."

No, she's not. No one who rises in a couple of years from being a small-town mayor to governor is just like us. Neither are John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. They're elites. And thank goodness they are.

The most enduring myth in American politics is the so-called wisdom of the common man. Think about it. Would you want your neighbor, co-worker or boss leading the free world?

Elites have been portrayed unfairly as being woefully out of touch. Hardly. Elite people don't spend their afternoons sipping wine and working on their tans. Instead, they're busy getting their hands dirty by achieving and improving standards in their respective spheres of influence, usually for the benefit of the rest of us.

Even chronic critics of the rich admit they pay the overwhelming portion of federal income taxes, lightening the load for underachievers. But the contributions of the elite extend far beyond writing a check.

In a stereotype-shattering Heritage Foundation analysis of the economic backgrounds of recent military recruits, Shanea J. Watkins and James Sherk found that we can thank the elites for producing the extraordinary generation defending this nation.

They found that among recruits who enlisted during 2006-07, more than 25 percent came from households with annual incomes ranging from $65,000 to $250,000. Only 11 percent came from households making $33,000 or less. This and other data destroy the stereotype that the military preys on the disadvantaged and uneducated.

Instead the opposite is true. In 2006-07, 98.5 percent of recruits accepted into the armed services had at least a high school diploma or some college. That statistic is even more meaningful given that 21 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds largely disqualified themselves from military service because they failed to graduate from high school.

One stereotype that Watkins and Sherk investigated held true. Military officers tend to come from affluent, well-educated families. Of course, life as an officer is definitely materially more comfortable than an enlisted person's. But if comfort and riches were the goal, most of these officers would have stayed civilians. Watkins and Sherk noted that many of the men and women receiving ROTC commissions passed up more lucrative civilian careers in order to wear the uniform.

I didn't need this analysis to understand that elites contribute more than their fair share to society. Who could blame Edward Kennedy had he chosen to spend his days sailing off Cape Cod after the violent deaths of his brothers Joe, John and Robert during their public service? And while Kennedy's personal behavior has made him the butt of jokes and parodies, there is no denying his work in the U.S. Senate has benefited millions of Americans when it comes to health care, education and earning the minimum wage.

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THE SAME IS TRUE FOR JOHN MCCAIN. The son and grandson of two of the most storied admirals in U.S. naval history, McCain married a bank. Cindy Hensley McCain inherited a very profitable Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship based in Phoenix. John McCain, already a war hero when they married in 1980, could have led a cushy life making speeches and selling beer in the desert. But like Kennedy, he opted to continue his elite family's tradition of service to the country.

While McCain is well-known for his headline-grabbing campaign finance reform legislation, the vast majority of his legislative accomplishments are in the headline-adverse fields of aviation, commercial law and Indian affairs.

Kennedy and McCain's examples are hardly new. This country was built by elites named Jefferson, Franklin, Hancock, Adams, Washington, Madison, Henry, Paine and Hamilton. For the most part they didn't spend time worrying about their next meal. Instead, they used their resources and capabilities for the benefit of all.

Our next president will face myriad extraordinary problems. To confront them, this nation needs more than a man or woman of ordinary ability.

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