Americans traditionally don't like US Senators for President

One fascinating tidbit from this election that I have not seen anyone really expound upon: this year the US will elect a sitting Senator as President for the first time since 1960, and only the second time ever!

Here is a brief chart showing the highest previous office held by every President since 1904:

2000	George W. Bush	Governor
1992	Bill Clinton	Governor
1988	George HW Bush	VP
1980	Ronald Reagan	Governor
1976	Jimmy Carter	Governor
1968	Richard Nixon	VP
1964	Lyndon Johnson	VP/Pres
1960	John F Kennedy	Senator
1952	Dwight D Eisenhower	General
1948	Harry S Truman	VP/Pres
1932	FDR	Governor
1928	Herbert Hoover	Sec'y of Commerce
1924	Calvin Coolidge	VP
1920	Warren Harding	Senator
1912	Woodrow Wilson	Governor
1908	William H Taft	Sec'y of War
1904	Theodore Roosevelt	VP/Pres

Harding was the first sitting senator to ever become President.

With the exception of Nixon, all vice presidents who became president were incumbents (at least in this time period.)

It appears that Americans trust governors far, far more as leaders than they do senators. The numbers seem to indicate an almost visceral distaste for senators - when senators go up against governors,

This could partially explain the appeal of Sarah Palin - even though she is a first-term governor, so were Jimmy Carter and FDR (although they were in office longer.) Americans seem to trust governors more with the presidency than they do Washington insiders; I believe that Harding was the only senator to ever defeat a governor for president.