Recently I had a discussion with a conservative attorney who was vocal in his position that Gov. Palin was not right for the Vice Presidency.  He believed that we needed someone with more education and experience.  She only has a bachelors degree and did not go to an Ivy-league school.  Ironically, it appears the American people disagree.  The polls suggest that the public is giving her the thumbs up.

I think one of the reasons that the public likes Palin is because she is not from the educational/political elite.  While Harvard and Columbia may be nice, a degree from these institutions does not guarantee that you have common sense.  Some would argue that the opposite may be true.  Palin comes across as a genuine member of the middle class - someone most of us can relate to.

The meltdown on Wall Street this week will likely reinforce this view for many Americans.  Dave Ramsey and other pedestrian financial advisers have been warning for years that sub-prime mortgages are a train wreck waiting to happen.  The Ivy-league geniuses on Wall Street, however, gobbled up the mortgages.  What could be wrong with lending to people with no equity and a house payment that would adjust up significantly within two years?  While it generated great bonuses for a few years, now the financial geniuses have tin cup in hand seeking a hand out from the American tax payers.

The upside of Palin is that she appears to be an ordinary person.  The average voter can relate to her and have a degree of confidence that she is not going to try some sophisticated economic scheme that neither she nor they understand.  In other words, they like Palin because they get her - and it sounds like she has common sense - a very rare commodity in Washington, D.C.

The meltdown on Wall Street will probably make Palin even more likable to most middle class voters.  Ironically, it may have the exact opposite effect on Obama.  Two of Obama's chief economic advisers were executives at Lehman Brothers and Fannie Mae.  In fact, one made $90 Million from Fannie Mae while Fannie Mae was buying up sub-prime loans and while Obama was becoming one of the top recipients of contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  While Obama has been playing up negative news in the economy, it could be a liability for him if voters associate his economic advisers with the poor decisions and greed that lead to Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy and Fannie Mae's bailout by taxpayers.