Tina Fey was as good as expected. The part at about a minute in when they contrast Hillary and Sarah is priceless, starting with them talking about how they agree on nothing and ending with her not knowing what the Bush doctrine is should be played on infinite loop everywhere.
*** Update ***
Via the comments, this:
There were howls of laughter from the sizeable press corps covering Palin’s first foray on the campaign trail without her running man as a chaperone.
But, from the front of the plane, silence. The flight attendants assured us Palin and her entourage were watching. What she thought, though, is anybody’s guess.
Palin has yet to say so much as hello to the press corps.
The campaign is doing its best to keep Palin well away from inquisitive reporters, going so far as to book the press corps into a separate hotel from the candidate.
The bolded part of that is just shocking.
Jeffrey
Palin was watching:
Ed Marshall
Fey’s Palin extolled her foreign policy expertise in a flat midwestern accent
What?!?!?!
Brian J
Because they’re soooooooooooooooooo mean because people want to, you know, have some idea of what she stood for, what she did, and what she plans to do? All of that sexist stuff, right?
Also, what’s this I hear about McCain being a POW?
Catpain Haddock
It is always interesting to see which SNL segments get wide play on shows like Hardball, etc. I noticed that sometimes the media will play SNL skits when they are too scared to address the same things themselves.
Incertus
I wonder if the press is going to explode about that the way they did when Obama played the campaign plane shell game with them?
jon
The bolded part isn’t shocking at all. Their strategy is to never have Palin do anything other than be a woman, say what she’s told to say, and do what she’s told to do. And they’ll attack as sexist anyone who questions this strategy.
Issues, truth, policy, plans, the country, whatever be damned: their goal is to win. I’m surprised they haven’t put out MAN+WOMAN=
MARRIAGEGOPVICTORY bumper stickers yet.A.Political
And that is why comedy, satire etc are so vital in repressive environments.
Chris Johnson
I liked that skit- made me all kinds of sympathetic for Hillary :)
“and to the media, grow a pair. If you can’t, I’ll lend you mine.”
Would that she could…
Tim
Everyone on This Week agrees, Palin knows nothing about policy and that’s good news for John McCain.
Insanity.
Dan
Are the rightwing commenters on the ABC blogs the stupidest in the country? Is that measurable? Or is it a unknowable unknown? I usually don’t see such moronic comments on even hardcore rw sites.
Bobzim
I was hoping to see Darrell Hammond as McCain, pop his head out from his crouching position behind Sarah Palin’s skirt.
The Grand Panjandrum
It is probably just as well that former POW John McCain doesn’t know how to use his intertrons. He might be one of those dumb fuck Right Wing nuts commenting over at ABC Blog.
But this is all good news for former POW John McCain.
Laura W
I was very un-fond of Debbie W-Schultz during the primaries but I HEART her now. (Face the Nation) She is one sharp, fierce, on-point, even-tempered, unrelenting debater. She should work with Biden in prep for his debate.
Saving SNL till Ketel One O’clock.
Not reading spoilers.
Kali's Little Sister
I have not watched SNL for years, but I made a point of catching this one; I was interested to see the media reaction this morning.
Everything I have read so far misses the entire point of the set up. At the end, Poehler as Clinton challenged the media to “grow a pair”. Have you read a single article on the subject that addresses the point? The responses are not about a call for media self-evaluation and reflection on being gamed into chasing shiny objects. Instead, we get the MILFing and joke-o-meter evaluations, Hillary-the-Ambitious crap.
Even covering a spoof to damn media coverage, the media lingers on the quality of impersonations rather than the message that impersonation was delivering. Style over substance, again and again and again…
Dear Lord, I wish I could believe the right people would get the real joke.
4tehlulz
>>Are the rightwing commenters on the ABC blogs the stupidest in the country?
Politico is worse.
JL
I missed Face the Nation and would love a recap.
The Grand Panjandrum
BTW I would like to point out that I do not believe for one second that Governor Palin is stupid because she knows very little about, or has a thin public record on matters of national importance, i.e., foreign policy. Ignorant, yes. Stupid, no. She is obviously very bright and ambitious, but so is Donald Trump and he ain’t performing brain science or rocket surgery either. Being rich and/or powerful doesn’t alleviate ignorance.
NonyNony
What TGP said. She’s not stupid. She is, however, shockingly ignorant of political affairs for a politician at the national level.
Had she been left in Alaska to finish out a term or two as governor, she could have gone on to be the Representative or Senator from Alaska (if her scandals didn’t take her down, of course). She could have been a political force for the wingnuts for the next generation. As it stands now, if McCain goes down in November, he may very well drag her national career down with him. I’m not crying any tears over that, but it does show once again that the wingnuts don’t think much about the long game – no strategy, all tactics with this crowd…
Kali's Little Sister
RE: Palin = Stupid?
I loved the way Fallows captured the triple threat characteristics she shares with GWB:
1) Ignorance
2) Lack of curiosity
3) “Decisiveness”
It is so obviously true. With that recognition comes the horrible realization that some people voted for GWB on purpose. ON PURPOSE! Lord, they really, really know not what they do.
mellowjohn
“Palin has yet to say so much as hello to the press corps.”
and if she did, she’d probably be lying. as mary mccarthy once said of lillian hellman, “every word that comes out of her mouth is a lie – including ‘and’ and ‘the’.”
btw, i’m old enough to remember how snl and chevy chase in particular turned jerry ford into a national laughingstock. we can only hope it happens again.
John Cole
You have no way of judging whether she is stupid or not. She went to 5 schools over six years to get a journalism degree. All she has done is read from a teleprompter. Everything she has touched as a mayor or governor she has made a thorough hash of, from cronyism and abuse of power to exploding budgets to an embrace of religious right mythology.
Don’t confuse political savvy with brainpower.
Laura W
I wish I could help here, JL. Hope you can find a credible and informed source to do it justice for you. I pretty much surf the innernet tubes the whole time I “watch” Sun morn blather tee vee. I look up when something gets my attention. There was a good debate on equal pay issues and Lilly Ledbetter with W-S really standing firm on McInsane’s record, esp. in response to Swift’s BS.
Some blah blah about family issues (unfit due to 5 kids?, etc), and I heard W-S mention that she and one of the R’s both have twins and that she was sure that just as she teaches her kids not to lie, Sarah surely must do the same. (I was in a nearby room when I heard the “L” word.) She’s turned into a really great advocate for Obama. And she retains her sense of humor, which is appreciated by me since I’m having a hard time doing same some days.
CBS “Face the Nation” – Governor Janet Napolitano (D-Ariz.), Representative Debbie Schultz (D-Fla.) will appear who support Obama/Biden and Senator Kay Baily Hutchinson (R-Tex.) and former Lt. Governor Jane Swift (R-Mass.) will appear who support McCain/Palin
John Cole
I turned the channel when I saw Swift was going to be on. I can not stand that idiot.
Scott H
Sexism Watch: Gov Pawlenty just referred to Sen Obama as being “hysterical” on Wolf Blitzer’s show.
SNL: I don’t know if I could tell the difference between Tina Fey and Sarah Palin in a police line-up. I’ll bet Sen Clinton was laughing.
JL
Laura, Thanks! Swift as a spokesperson surprises me. I’m not sure what enticed her to come out of the woodwork. I’ll try to see if it’s on line later.
D. Mason
The whole American press corps couldn’t carry her balls.
Drylake
One thing I took away from the SNL skit was that Fey, in spite of capturing the look, the accent and some of the gestures, was completely beyond her depth in representing the snarling meanness that is essential to Palin’s being–take another look at her “In what respect, Charlie?” response to Gibson in the interview to confirm.
mapaghimagsik
Just Brilliant. Its multi-layer skits like that I love.
Georgette Orwell
Not necessarily shocking, but *wonderful* because we know that the media reacts well only to those who kowtow to and feed them. Perhaps they’ll try to get back at her by committing journalism.
(I know Jane Swift slightly, and Jane Swift is a twit. She and Palin are setting back women by decades.)
JoshA
I do wish they had a line of something like “I’m pro-choice for all women” vs. “I’m pro-choice for me and my family, but anti-choice for everyone else.”
magisterludi
In re: trolls
It seems organized on the MSM sites. I keep envisioning a warehouse basement filled with rows of greasy, pimply blobs sitting at computers typing furiously away under the watchful eyes of James Dobson, Wayne LaPierre and Todd Palin.
jvill
The Sarah Palin Select a Joke
If Sarah Palin can’t face our cowed press corps, how on earth is she going to face: ________________.
AkaDad
That was great. The timing and delivery were perfect.
t jasper parnell
One aspect of the Palin/McCain ticket’s success that is not mentioned often enough is the boost it offers teenage boys on prom night. No more complicated stories about how condoms interfere with full pleasure or promises of respect in the morning, now they can assert that if teenage is good enough for Bristol it ought to be good enough for whomever it is they brought to the dance, unless — of course — the whomever is somekind of an uppity elitist. Plus, for all those concerned parents shotgun weddings are back in style.
Kali's Little Sister
Sarah Palin: Unblinkingly willing to make your choices for you.
Cause her Bible told her so. So don’t worry your pretty little heads about anything, Sister Sarah knows best. Of that she is perfectly, unabashedly, definitively, inflexibly–and yes, unblinkingly–certain.
t jasper parnell
teenage sex, I meant.
Laura W
Forgive me for not remembering until now that I think Face the Nation may have concluded with a round table discussion on Palin’s Naughty Monkey shoes.
There is a creationist joke in there somewhere.
curtadams
I thought they hit a really good note with Hillary. Their Hillary character was (almost) believable, sympathetic, and funny as h***. “I should have wanted it more,” lol
Brian
Fey as absolutley brilliant. Even my wife, who doesn’t follow AMerican politics much and isn’t an American citizen found her impersonation to be uncannily good.
Crop Schooner Palin.
Thank you.
When a smart person finds themself in waaaay over their head–like when someone asks you what you think of a doctrine you have never heard of–it’s possible to use basic wit and come up with an answer. Or you can bluster and hem and haw about how George Bush only wants to protect the country.
In other words, do you think if you asked Bill Clinton a question about something he knew nothing about, he’d come off looking anywhere near as bad as Palin did?
tom.a
Of course they won’t. They’ve had 2 weeks with her and they’ve only been able to do one single interview. This is the entire Press establishment of the U.S., and the sum of their efforts has been a single interview. Are they even trying? Obviously no.
low-tech cyclist
It’s interesting to compare how the wingnuts feel Palin should be sheltered now, and how they felt a seventh-grader and SCHIP beneficiary named Graeme Frost didn’t deserve any quarter this time last year.
I’ve compared Michelle Malkin then and now, just to give the general idea.
ScottF
I think there’s an interesting line of attack this segment opens up that no one’s really talking about. Consider Sarah Palin as the attractive newbie woman given a job that seems way above her experience and capabilities, while passing over older, more accomplished women who worked their asses off to get where they are.
C
Science fiction writer Robert Heinlein (through his characters) said that people generally have the government they deserve. It’s telling that many Americans share and celebrate the qualities that Kali’s Little Sister mentions.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Amy Poehler is not getting enough love here or anywhere else; her Hillary, while not as scarily dead-on as Fey’s Palin, was every bit as funny.
She and Tina need to spin off their own show. Like SNL, but funny.
Obama2008
Nor Sarah nor Hillary, worthless.
OBAMA 2008
Brian Balogh
Wow – I stumbled upon this video for a laugh and so I might pass it along to a friend of mine who claimed not to have seen it. I was shocked – what a bunch of embittered, venomous, hateful, vitriolic looney leftists there are in this country – you’ve all got to be in California and New york, no? It must be wonderful to see the world through those rose-coloured, know-it-all glasses you all have. Where can I get a pair of those? I would love to think of things unrealistically and in idealised terms – without the hindrance of common sense and without once having to be beholden to or take into consideration the way the world in general and human beings/human behaviour dictate. I’d love to live on that blissful ship sailing the seas of your ignorant ocean. Where is this place you all live? Narnia? Oz? Middle Earth? It’s gotta be NY and California . . .