Today’s anti-Washington spirit is a factor. Outsiders have an advantage. Republicans have always fallen hard for businessmen. And the jock-GOP culture certainly remains strong (e.g – the popular moose killing, basketball star, beauty queen gone governor, Sarah Palin). As the president of the Michigan firm, Bernie Porn, said: “The folks who are passionate NRA members, I just don’t see them partying with nerds.”

But increasingly, nerds appear to be the life of the party.

Paul Ryan, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, used his nerd skills last week to “unpack” the Senate health care bill numbers. No less than George Will has imagined Ryan as a future vice president.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, a potential presidential candidate, previously served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. It’s a job only a nerd could love…

Some GOP nerd-stars remain in denial. Mitt Romney favors the cookie-cutter executive image. But Romney is a guy who quotes Star Wars and recently told-on a rapper who did not have his airplane seat in the “upright and locked position.” There is also the young Illinois GOP Rep. Aaron Schock. Schock attempts to portray cool. He recently wore couture suits in GQ. But behind the constructed image many see TV prodigy Doogie Howser and the guy who opened his own Individual Retirement Account at age 14.