Sarah Palin on SNL

UPDATE, October 20, 2008: Sarah Palin sets 'SNL' ratings record
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Sarah Palin went deep behind enemy lines on Saturday.

She was on Saturday Night Live.

Not only did she appear on the show with the cast that has mercilessly mocked her and her family, she had to face Alec Baldwin.

Watch Alec Baldwin mock Palin on a recent Real Time with Bill Maher. He was not kind when he commented on her performance during the vice presidential debate.

BALDWIN: She scored points because between the last time she was in front of a camera, and she worked very hard obviously and she did very well, she learned to shovel that bullshit better and more seamlessly than she did with Katie Couric.

Nonetheless, Palin didn't flinch as she took Baldwin's arm on SNL.

Jonathan Martin of Politico gives an account of the opening segment.

Fey opened the show in character, taking questions In a sketch meant to be Palin's first press conference.

At first glance, when she walked to the microphone, it wasn't clear if it was Fey as Palin or Palin herself.

"You know that was just my lame attempt at a joke," Fey explained when asked by a reporter about Palin's comment this week about being in a "pro-American" part of the country. "But, yes, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, California. And also, too, you have states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida which could be real anti-American or real, real pro-American -- it's up to them.

After saying she wanted to entertain the reporters with "paegant-walking," the camera flashed to SNL director Lorne Michaels and Palin herself watching the show on a backstage monitor.

"Lorne, you know, I just didn't think it was a realistic depiction of the way my press conferences would have gone," Palin observed.

Asked why they couldn't have done her sketch of "30 Rock" -- Fey's NBC show -- Michaels shot back: "Not enough people know that show."

After a brief cameo by Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin appeared and acted like he thought Palin was Fey.

"You can't let Tina go out there with that woman," Baldwin told Michaels as Palin looked on. "She goes against everything we stand for -- good lord, Lorne."

Forgetting one of Palin's nicknames, Baldwin asked "Tina" for a reminder.

"That would be Caribou Barbie," Palin said.

Upon being told "Tina" was actually Palin, Baldwin told her she was "way hotter in person."

"Oh, thank you and I must say your brother Stephen is my favorite Baldwin brother," Palin replied.

Flashing back to the set of the press conference, Baldwin whispered in Fey's ear.

"What?" Fey asked. "The real one?"

At this, Fey and Palin crossed paths but didn't say anything to the other.

"No, I'm not going to take any of your questions," Palin announced upon taking the podium, "But I do want to take this opportunity to say, LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT."

Video.

Transcript

Palin also appeared on the Weekend Update segment. Sitting at the desk, she told Seth Meyers that she decided not to do the bit they had planned. Amy Poehler stood in for her. While Poehler and friends rapped, Palin moved to the beat.

Lyrics:

"MY NAME IS SARAH PALIN, YOU ALL KNOW ME, VICE-PREZZY NOMINEE OF THE GOP, GONNA NEED YOUR VOTE IN THE NEXT ELECTION, CAN I GET A WHAT-WHAT FROM THE SENIOR SECTION, MCCAIN GOT EXPERIENCE, MCCAIN GOT STYLE, BUT DON'T LET HIM FREAK YOU OUT, WHEN HE TRIES TO SMILE, CUZ THAT SMILE BE CREEPY, BUT WHEN I'M V.P., ALL THE LEADERS IN THE WORLD GONNA FINALLY MEET ME, (FRED ARMISEN & ANDY SAMBERG enter as ESKIMOS) POEHLER -- (contd)HOW'S IT GO ESKIMOS?TELL TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW ESKIMOS!HOW YA FEEL ESKIMOS?TELL TELL ME WHAT YOU FEEL ESKIMOS! SAMBERG/ARMISEN -- ESKIMOS!ESKIMOS!ICE COLD!SUPER COLD! EHLER - "I'M JEREMIAH WRIGHT CUZ TONIGHT IM THE PREACHER, I GOT A BOOKISH LOOK AND YOU'RE ALL HOT FOR TEACHER, (The camera cuts away to Meyers and Gov. Palin enjoying themselves) (JASON SUDEIKIS enters as TODD PALIN and stands next to POEHLER) TODD LOOKING FINE ON HIS SNOW MACHINE, SO HOT FOR EACH OTHER, NEED A GO-BETWEEN, IN WASILLA, WE JUST CHILL BABY CHILLA BUT WHEN I SEE OIL, IT'S..." ALL -- "DRILL BABY DRILLA!" POEHLER - "MY COUNTRY TIS OF THEE," FROM MY PORCH I CAN SEE, RUSSIA AND SUCH." ALL THE MAVERICKS IN THE HOUSE, PUT YOUR HANDS UP, ALL THE MAVERICKS IN THE HOUSE, PUT YOUR HANDS UP, ALL THE PLUMBERS IN THE HOUSE, PULL YOUR PANTS UP, ALL THE PLUMBERS IN THE HOUSE, PULL YOUR PANTS UP, WHEN I SAY OBAMA, YOU SAY AYERS, OBAMA! SAMBERG/ARMISEN - "AYERS!" POEHLER - "OBAMA!" SAMBERG/ARMISEN - "AYERS!" POEHLER - "I BUILT ME A BRIDGE AND IT AINT GOING NOWHERE! OOOOOHHHHHHHH. MCCAIN/PALIN GONNA PUT THE NAIL IN THE COFFIN... OF THE MEDIA ELITE" SAMBERG/ARMISEN - "SHE LIKES RED MEAT!" (A MOOSE ENTERS) POEHLER - "SHOOT A MUTHA HUMPIN MOOSE EIGHT DAYS OF THE WEEK, NOW YOURE DEAD NOW YOURE DEAD CUZ I'M AN AMINAL, AND I'M BIGGER THAN YOU HOLDIN' A SHOTGUN, WORKIN' THE PUMP Everybody party, we GOING ON A HUNT LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA YO I'M PALIN I'M OUT! (AMY, SUDEIKIS AND SAMBERG/ARMISEN EXIT AS SNOW FALLS) MEYERS - "I think you made the right decision not to do that." GOV. PALIN - "You betcha."

Palin appeared a third time, at the show's end for the goodnights.

She was wearing a black suit and black boots.

So how did she do?

On the Huffington Post, Robert Kubey writes:

Sarah Palin joined SNL tonight and proved once again that McCain was unwise to have her on the ticket and even more unwise not to veto this appearance. In isolation, Palin's very brief moments were, in themselves the problem. But consider what people tuning in experienced, especially her conservative base fans and any of the young people they hoped to attract to their failed campaign. SNL has long been Saturday Night Dead and without Tina Fey there was nothing worth seeing. Josh Brolin hosted, reporting thay playing W taught him that neither W, nor he should ever be president. Then in sketches and Weekend Update viewers were reminded of the economic difficulty the country finds itself in and by now we know that the economy has done nothing but hurt John McCain. Thus, over and over, viewers were reminded of McCain's biggest problem, besides Sarah Palin. Then, no viewer could be sure when Gov. Palin would appear thought might guess she'd appear on Weekend Update, but one watched all the awful bilge wondering if she might appear in a tasteless sketch. She didn't but millions of viewers were exposed to scores of fart jokes, a sketch about a guy who would shoot a ping pong ball from his rear end, and Palin being compared to Dan Quayle. No helping hand of any kind was extended to Palin. Often these appearances help humanize the candidate, but we already know she is human and capable of error and has a sense of humor. But now we know better than before that her judgement and that of Sen. McCain is indefensible. Cap that off with one of the most tough and incisive Obama ads of the campaign purchased midway though the program. I just shook my head and thought, man, the Obama campaign doesn't miss a trick and maybe the McCain campaign really is being run by those who wish him to lose and lose badly.

(Note: All I did was copy and paste. The errors are the reponsibility of Kubey.)

Naturally, the spin from the Left would be that Palin's appearance was a mistake. Did you expect reviews to be positive?

I thought the show was absolutely awful. It was terrible. Considering Michaels knew the show would pull in a large audience because of Palin, you'd think the material would have been a bit better. It was a stunningly bad show.

However, the material that Kubey complains about is typical of the garbage SNL has produced in recent years. It's not as if the poor writing and tasteless skits were reserved for the episode with Palin. Kubey tries to make the case Palin's SNL appearance shows that "now we know better than before that her judgement and that of Sen. McCain is indefensible."

Now that's very funny! I don't think Kubey realizes that he's slamming his fellow libs as boorish and juvenile.

Although the show was absolutely terrible, I think a case can be made that it was wise for Palin to appear.

Personally, I don't think I could stand associating with a group that had done a sketch accusing my husband of sexually assaulting my daughters.

Palin is tougher than I am. True to form, SNL slammed conservatives and gave a pass to libs. The writers even brought out Dan Quayle and Clarence Thomas jokes. I believe that was purposeful, meant to torture conservative viewers, the ones who don't usually watch the show.

There wasn't even a mention of Joe Biden's moronic "J-O-B-S" gaffe. That's like comedy malpractice.

I can imagine some McCain-Palin supporters saying SNL is beneath Palin and she shouldn't have been on; but she may have opened the eyes of some Americans. They may not know just how one-sided SNL is. The obvious lib bias and the attacks on conservatives could energize some McCain-Palin supporters to fight.

More importantly, Palin showed that she's still standing in spite of all the attacks.

She was in control, and not at all bruised or battered.

Surrounded by enemies, she was fearless. She stared them in the face. She was poised.

It's not bad judgment for Palin to show that her enemies are failures. They couldn't destroy her. Meanwhile, Barack Obama is whining again about FOX News today in The New York Times Magazine.

He is troubled by FOX, when he has every other news outlet dishing out his propaganda.

Can Obama Close the Deal with Those White Guys?

Yeah, it's those racist white guys who are resisting following the messiah.

“I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls,” Obama told me. “If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right? Because the way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that? “I guess the point I’m making,” he went on, “is that there is an entire industry now, an entire apparatus, designed to perpetuate this cultural schism, and it’s powerful. People want to know that you’re fighting for them, that you get them. And I actually think I do. But you know, if people are just seeing me in sound bites, they’re not going to discover that. That’s why I say that some of that may have to happen after the election, when they get to know you.”

Obama should quit complaining about FOX News.

Good grief. Obama has got to be kidding!

How much higher in the polls would McCain-Palin be if there were no NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, Reuters, etc.?

Keep this mind:

Barack Obama has abandoned his more than two-year silent treatment toward "FOX News Sunday," accepting an invitation to appear this week on the national morning talk show. The Democratic presidential candidate's appearance will end a 772-day record of refusing to sit down for an interview. FOX News Sunday host Chris Wallace said the decision to launch a "count-up" clock may have helped encourage Obama's decision to be a guest. "We started the clock a month ago at 730 days. This Sunday it will be up to 772 days and the conversation about Obama coming on got a lot more serious after we started the count down, or the count up," Wallace said. He added that an Obama campaign aide had called the clock "obnoxious" when it first aired on March 16, 2008. "It may have been obnoxious but it was also effective," Wallace said. Last Sunday, the Obama clock was past 765 days, 13 hours, 54 min and 47 seconds by the end of the show. Since then, Obama lost the Pennsylvania primary to Hillary Clinton by 10 points, the first primary to be held since the clock aired. The two candidates face off next in North Carolina and Indiana on May 6. Wallace said if Obama had won Pennsylvania, he may not have accepted the invitation. "If he had won he'd probably on a Caribbean island this weekend. The fact that he's going to be on Sunday television and on FOX News may be an indication he figures he has to reach out to working-class Democrats, moderates and conservative Democrats and FOX News is a good place to do it," he said.

Do you think Kubey would say that Obama's appearance on FOX News Sunday reveals that Obama's judgment is indefensible?