Good question! You have to realize the election campaign is a different group of people from the Bush administration. A few weeks ago on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart brought up this subject by pointed out that the Republicans are good at winning elections but bad at running the country. Ed Gillespie, who ran the campaign, was the guest and while this was a compliment to his campaign management, he still had to defend the Bush administration.
Go to the Comedy Central website and search for Ed Gillespie. The interview is in two parts.
If you take the time to read elsewhere in the JREF forum, and read James Randi's commentaries, you will see that there is plenty of deluded thinking going on in this world. Most people will agree that believing in elves and faries is pretty bizarre, but you will find a few people who honestly believe in such nonsense. More common nonsense beliefs include dowsing, psychics, remote viewing, etc. These can easily be shown to be false and that their believers are deluding themselves. Once you realize how people convince themselves of all sorts of nonsense, it isn't too difficult to see why so many people believed the lies told during the presidental campaign and voted for George Bush.
Of course, once you see how people like to delude themselves, it becomes very easy to see how some people fall for every conspiracy theory that comes along. Conspiracy theories, political beliefs, etc. may not be paranormal in nature, but it is all part of the same irrational thinking that leads to paranormal beliefs. It is *not* a matter of intelligence but a matter of emotional vs. rational thought.
I'd like to see a civics test for voters, but that's not PC right now.