I'll offer one person's opinion here:
But with all due respect, I fail to see how being mayor of a very small town in Alaska and being Governor of the same state for 20 months makes her more qualified to be President than the Dem combined ticket...and I can say I'm no fan of Obama. I think our current incumbent has demonstrated that being governor is no real guarantee of appropriate experience.
Let's agree to leave names, hotness, personalities, parties out of the discussion I'm about to embark upon.
Legislators:
- Senators (and Reps) sit in on committees and offer opinions, vote on laws, etc. Many of these affect international relations/events.
- As close to "negotiating national policy" or "international relations" that they get (as an INDIVIDUAL) is to go on junket trips where they get paraded around in groups on our dime and feasted while making international headlines.
- All decisions are made as a "group", so when the SHTF on a decision they made, they all point in other directions.
- The nature of the job is 180 out of phase from "the buck stops here" mentality.
- They essentially live in DC (area) and rarely even know what is going on in their "own back yard" (the place they were voted to represent). They rely on underlings to report sanitized and boiled down info on what is bugging their constituents.
- They are subjected to huge "donations" by corporate interests and end up "playing ball" to get ahead or stay in the job.
- They are never held accountable for what goes wrong, but always take credit for things that turn out right . . . even though they were only 1 of 100 (or more in the House) that voted for it.
Mayors/Governors:
- Someone said "all politics is local" and it is as true today as it was when it was originally stated.
- These folks are directly accountable for decisions that they make.
- They are on "speed dial" from a lot of ORDINARY people who have opinions on what's going on around them.
- Small town/state politics at this level is intensely personal. Many of us have called our Mayor/Town Manager at home on some issue. This becomes less likely the larger the community is (wrt population, not area). We run into our leaders in local supermarkets, stores, gas stations, etc. They live in the neighborhoods that they manage, so they see (and hear) the impact daily.
- If someone tries to grease their palms, everyone and their brother hears about it almost immediately.
- You are in a perpetual "hot seat" and expected to perform, without 100s of "handlers" and TelePrompTers.
- They ARE the chief executive of their city/town/state! They may not negotiate with foreign leaders (it's not part of any job but that of the President), but they are as close as you can get to people who negotiate with diverse interest groups to get something to work. So, they understand the concepts, even though they all have to do OJT to learn the nuances of negotiating with foreign powers (who may have different social/cultural norms then Americans).
- "The buck really does stop here" for those actions that fall under their domain.
I hope this helps put some perspectives around the decision making and why Senators aren't usually elected to the Presidency, while Governors are oftentimes elected to the ultimate position.