SNL Star Sarah Palin

I'm sure other people have posted about this already, and I apologize for not checking first before posting it again, but below is a video from SNL's website of one of Palin's two cameos on last night's episode. The video shows Amy performing a rap that was "supposedly" written for Sarah Palin to perform, but she forgoes her role in the beginning of the skit claiming that the stunt would be "damaging" to the campaign. Duhh... Media, however, are entertaining the thought that perhaps the skit was written for Sarah rather than Amy.



Regardless, according to statistics found overnight by Nielsen Media Research, Palin's appearance attracted the largest audience for SNL in 14 years, with nearly 17 million people tuning in for the first half hour of the show. The Associated Press claimed the show hadn't seen that kind of viewership since Nancy Kerrigan guest-hosted in 1994 following her assault. However, of the 14 million who continued watching until the end (a huge number for any midnight show), I wonder how impressed they were? Some comments I found stated that they thought her SNL performance was similar to her debate skills--uneventful and slightly boring--while others, including McCain, noted how "wonderful" she was. However, the former group attributes this sentiment to the same reasoning applied to her debates and interviews--we all think she's fantastic if she simply doesn't screw up.

The picture to the right was the only instance in the entire show of Fey and Palin together, and it lasted maybe 2.5 seconds as Fey wisked herself offstage and Palin entered to replace her. The two barely made eye contact, and even in the SNL backstage video, there are no shots of Palin and Fey in the same room. Was this to avoid direct comparison of the imitation to the real thing? And what would that accomplish? Or maybe Tina Fey simply is not fond of Governor Palin, as evidenced by her appearance on Letterman earlier in the week. Whatever the reason, it seems more people tuned in to watch these two women than ever expected, more than half the number of presidential debate viewers! And even though Palin and Fey didn't face off, Palin supporters should be proud of their candidate for her role with proclaimed Democrat and Obama-supporter Alec Baldwin, as their banter, in my opinion, was quite well done. Still, as Jon Stewart says of Palin, expectations are exceeded if she "remained upright and didn't drool."

Did this PR stunt prove anything to America, or was it simply the Republican party's acknowledgement that she really doesn't have much more to lose, so why not play around a little? What does it all mean? I'm sure we'll find out later this week in the polls. But more importantly, what should it all mean, and what impact should something like this really have on a presidential election? Hopefully...less than I'm expecting it will.