Forgetting Sarah Palin (was ever on SNL)
Published: October 20, 2008
Ok, show of hands please. Who felt a little uncomfortable watching Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live this past weekend?
What was she thinking? What were the Republicans thinking?
You have to figure that this was all carefully analyzed before the McCain campaign agreed to do it, and the ground rules must have been laid out.
There’s certainly a precedent for this type of thing. Bill Clinton playing the sax on Arsenio Hall’s show during the 1992 campaign. That worked out pretty well.
Even John McCain appearing on David Letterman last week seemed to make him more marketable as a candidate. Certainly not less.
Can we say the same for Palin? While McCain showed his quick wit by trading barbs with the sharp-tongued Letterman, Palin seemed only to prove that she can be the butt of a joke.
Alec Baldwin in one skit supposedly thinking he’s talking to cast mate Tina Fey, asks what is the nickname attached to the Governor of Alaska, so which Palin responds, “Caribou Barbie.”
That’s funny. But it’s on Palin. Somewhere in there you’d think she would have insisted on getting one back on the SNL crew who are enjoying massive ratings advances at Palin’s expense.
The moment of the night may have been when look-alikes Palin and Fey passed one another on the way to and from the podium as Fey’s pseudo-Palin rushed off having just been told the REAL Sarah Palin was in the house.
At that point Palin stopped Fey’s faux news conference to announce that “Live from New York, It’s Saturday Night.”
That was pretty cool. But a part of me wanted to see Palin zing Fey just once. Just to equalize things a tad.
Ditto later in the show when they did the Sarah Palin rap. SNL brought out dancing Eskimos, joined by a Todd Palin look-alike in a snowmobile suit as Amy Poehler rapped humorous lyrics and gunshot sound effects took out a man in a moose costume.
I laughed out loud watching the skits on my computer. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out why Palin and the Repbulicans let them get away with it.
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I believe this was an attempt to show that Sarah could “take it” as well as dish it out as she’s been doing on the campaign trail these past few weeks. The same goes for John McCain. He went on Letterman to eat some humble pie in contrast to the “angry old man” image he was getting on the road.
The RNC seems to be operating on the principal that all news is good news. Sarah’s appearance on SNL has kept her in the headlines for how many days now?
In contrast to the media exposure she got after the Couric interviews, this played a lot better for her. You could tell from her body language that she really, really hated it though.
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