"Sarah Palin: She's just like Us!" That seems to be the thrust of her candidacy. (The smartest thing the McCain/Palin campaign has done is not to position her as an expert on, well, anything.)

The problem is it isn't 2000 anymore, when the world was safe (relatively) and the economy was booming (sort of). Back then we could afford to elect someone who seemed to be ... just like you and me. That's why we elected George Bush, aka the Male Sarah Palin. He was someone you wanted to have a (non-alcoholic) beer with.

But right now, Knowledge is In. Dumb is so five minutes ago.

That's why Palin's approvals plummeted after the Katie Couric interviews aired. (Click here to read my analysis of the Katie-Sarah dynamic.) People are too scared right now to put someone that uninformed that close to the White House. I'm convinced that if George W. Bush had given the same kind of answers to Katie Couric, and the year was 2000, then voters would have reacted differently. They would have said he was a regular guy with a good gut instinct.

I AM NOT SAYING THAT SARAH PALIN IS DUMB (even if many of her non-answers were thuddingly dumb). Obviously the woman is at least canny. She's the governor of her state. What I am saying is that right now people are very nervous. They want someone who, well, knows stuff.

That said, the nation's mood is cyclical. Once (if?) the economic cataclysm passes and our two wars resolve, we may once again return to a focus on personality and "gut instinct" when we evaluate candidates. In other words, Sarah's political moment may yet be.

In the meantime, if Obama wins (and his lead is looking pretty solid), my guess is that Palin will sustain in the public eye for reasons pop cultural. That's important, because if she wants to make a run in 2012 or 2016, she needs to stay on everyone's radar from faraway Alaska. The video below is from a panel on Politics and Pop Culture sponsored by Time and CNN last week.

Watch, then weigh in: If Obama wins, is Palin here to stay?



Talking about Sarah Palin without getting into a fight can be difficult, which is why I consulted last month with famed psychologist Dr. Gilda:



Finally, if you're still around, watch me try to do a back handspring!