<p>^^^^^
The American public wants a common man to be president?</p>
<p>Apparently an Ivy degree doesn’t seem to be much of an impediment given that all our presidents for the past 20 years are Ivy grads.</p>
<p>OTOH, all the Wall Street ib’s who are responsible for much of our current financial disaster are said to be Ivy grads (apparently the big firms won’t even interview anyone who isn’t) so perhaps we’d all be better off putting graduates of State flagships in charge.</p>
<p>They could hardly do worse.</p>
<p>To answer the OP, prestige is absolutely in the eye of the beholder and is often completely disconnected from the effective abilities of any given individual. No matter how many times this is proven, people still love the big brand names. Apparently, it’s hard-wired into the human psyche.</p>