The vast majority of elected officials have succombed to the deceptive political elexir for which Washington, D.C. is the capital source. But not all.
I am convinced Sarah Palin's greatest asset (among many), and the reason she would be a exceptional president, is her honesty.
Another problem with progressives is that they affirm their worldview through the use of anecdotal evidence. (For example, the OKC bombing is used to balance out the entireity of Muslim terrorism.) The problem with this is that an anecdote, whether true or not, can be an exception to the rest of the evidence.