Sarah Palin killed on SNL

I have to agree -- she really was a great sport!

She was a pretty good sport-- they didn't give her much to do though. At least she didn't look like a deer in the headlights the way other "surprise" guests tend to. She's enjoying the ride while it lasts.

She was very funny.

Now let's get her on Meet the Press and she her be serious.

Has a vice presidential candidate every gotten to November without sitting down for an interview on one of the Sunday morning talk shows (even on the GOP-house broadcaster, Fox)? It's incomprehensible that someone who is a bad flu season from being president if elected won't sit down for a live interview. It's shocking.

No serious person needs to sit down with Laura Ingraham. She's symbolic of the problems with conservatism

Well, that makes sense.

I'm actually stunned that so many conservatives are comfortable with a VP pick who cannot/will not have a live press conference, with an open mic, before national and/or local reporters.

"Oh, look, over there, Bill Ayers."

Reaganite wrote:

""Meet the Press" and Tom Brokaw are totally in the tank for Obama and the Democrats. It's nothing personal (Brokaw seems like a nice guy). It's just that Brokaw, et. al. can't help themselves. They're hopelessly liberal and merely pretend to being fair and impartial journalists."

I have a question for you. Are you willfully ignorant, pretending to be ignorant to be contrary, or really truly ignorant? Tom Brokaw a liberal. That's funny. You do know about the discussions about Brokaw moderating the debate -- how people were encouraging the Obama campaign to raise the same stink about Brokaw as McCain made about Gwen Ifill. And to compare a serious news show like Meet the Press with Laura Ingraham. Wow. You really do live in your own little world. Thankfully, that world is now crumbling, hopefully for good.

OT: I'm beginning to think you are not yet 30. Am I right?

Who'd Two Fools for Sister Sarah kill, Rod?

Laura Ingraham is harmless, but a lightweight. She's never been substantive, always viewed as something of a conservative "poseur" like Tucker Carlson, who became conservative pundits because they were looking for a schtick, not because they really cared. She's not an entertainer, like Rush, and she's not downright nuts, like Coulter. She's just inconsequential. No one serious need sit down with the likes of her.

Let's give credit where it's due: Amy Poehler killed. Sarah Palin did just fine.

"Wasn't Sarah Palin a TV sportscaster once upon a time? That was probably her true calling, and she should've stuck with it."

80% or so of the citizens that have had her as a governor seem to think she's done quite well at that, so it seems you're in a rather tiny minority on that point...

The real reason for sticking with the sportcaster thing would have been to spare the inconvenience of her getting in the way of the Obama coronation, No? Sorry for that.

She was a good sport....

EddieinCA and Daniel, your notion that a candidate's appearing before "serious journalists" in order to be considered credible needs to be held up to the light. If the elite members of the Fourth Estate really were the fair-minded objective pursuers of the truth you seem to think they are, then I would agree with you a hundred percent. But that's not true now, and it hasn't been true for a long time. Whether you want to admit or not, the members of the elite media are have ceased being impartial agents of truth and have instead become partisans of one political ideology. Instead of referees, the elite media are players in the process - they, as a class, have an interest in the outcome. Is it any wonder then, that candidates who happen to oppose the elite media's preferred ideology are somewhat less than thrilled with the idea of standing before a group of partisans all howling some version of "when did you stop beating your wife"?

Leaving aside the political bias of the elite media, your insistence on Palin subjecting herself to a press conference also assumes that the reporters have some special knowledge or expertise that permits them to ask insightful, in-depth questions. I hate to tell you this but a degree in journalism only qualifies a reporter as knowledgable in one area - journalism. As a rule, most reporters, especially television reporters, know less than nothing about economics, history, foreign affairs, the judiciary, the law, engineering, science, anything. But that doesn't stop them from pontificating to the rest of us (who actually might know a thing or two about those subjects).

If the press were the non-ideological darlings you assume them to be, then by all means Palin should do a news conference (and so should Biden, and Obama, and McCain). But in the real world, where the elite media has shredded all their meager remaining claims to impartiality, demanding a candidate subject herself to such a circus sounds like the partisan tactic it is.

Every 3rd world thug knows how to play the press, but the Republican Party doesn't. It would do well to study and study again the masterfly way in which the Soviet Regime under Stalin trained Western journalists to sing their tune.

Yes, I realize that "killed" means she did well but do you realize how that headline could create misleading impressions? Think first before you write.

I thought she was a good sport to go on, but SNL got over by laughing with her AND at her. Her best line was toward Alec Baldwin-Steven is her favorite!

As a Christian, I was very disappointed to hear that she went on SNL. Something terrible is happening what kind of examples are we setting for the world when we're merging with the world. We can't have it both ways, we can't straddle the fence. We're either for God or we're not.

I thought Palin was a very smart good sport. Did just fine. LOOKED great. (In Fact: Hot as a smoldering hibachi in a tundra igloo). But elmo got it right.

As a rule, most reporters, especially television reporters, know less than nothing about economics, history, foreign affairs, the judiciary, the law, engineering, science, anything

Sports. Man, I hate it when the talking hairdos start talking about sports. Even half the actual sports reporters on anything but the serious sports networks seem to know jack diddly about what their talking on..

Yeah, I thought she was great on SNL. Her bit with Alec Baldwin was priceless. But I also have to agree with the posters who think that the McCain people are hiding her from the press. McCain isn't scared to go on all the talking head shows or talk to the press. He and Cindy even appeared before those clucking hens on "The View" who gave them a pretty hard time but they stood up for themselves pretty well, I think.

And people keep talking about the "liberal media". But the fact is, that the "liberal" New York Times bought into the Bush Administration's cooked up case for the Iraq War hook, line, and sinker. Especially after 9/11, when the Administration started flushing the Constitution down the toilet in the name of "Keeping us safe" I don't remember any journalists or media types saying much about this. It seemed to be left to people like Ron Paul.

Yeah, I will agree that MSNBC is really pretty much "Elect Obama Central" and Keith Olbermann has totally given up all pretense of impartiality. He is sort of a left wing Rush Limbaugh or even a Michael Savage when he really gets worked up! I know Chris Matthews is in the tank for Obama but he at least tries to get both sides. (Though I do watch MSNBC sometimes to see Morning Joe and my man Pat Buchanan.) But Keith and Rachel Maddow are just left wing editions of "fair and balanced" Fox News, and Fox is only fair to a certain type of conservatives, the neocons, mostly. I am still po'd at Fox for their treatment of Ron Paul during the primaries, most especially his treatment by that idiot Sean Hannity. But what can you expect of a guy who gets into a shouting match with a priest on TV when he supposed to be "Mr. Blue Collar Faithful Catholic"? Now that the economy is going south, though, Ron's on Fox and CNN pretty much every other day, saying "I told you so".

I also have to give Obama creds for apppearing on Bill O'Reilly. I wish Sarah would appear on Larry King even. He's not too harsh on people. Or have a press conference or those Sunday talking head shows. Just something!

I also have no idea what political party Jim Lehrer belongs too. Or Anderson Cooper or Wolf Blitzer. I assume they might be Democrats but you don't know from their reporting.

I was so excited when McCain picked Palin. I was not planning to vote for him but decided to at that time. Now I am having second thoughts. Am not voting for Obama but am about ready to write in Ron Paul or vote for Chuck Baldwin.

I am worried by how out of her depth Sarah seems at simple questions and how she doesn't seem to have thought deeply about some of the serious issues of our time. I mean, she actually said that "we are fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here." I thought that was Sean Hannity's line!!! I would hope that with time she would gain a better depth of knowledge but I'm afraid McCain's advisors have just filled her head with talking points. She does seem to know about energy for example, and how to run a state government, which is no small thing. She is solid on social issues.... but I am starting to have the feeling that she is Dan Quayle in a skirt. Or even, God help us, George Bush in a skirt. Bush is not, actually, an idiot or a stupid man. But I get the feeling that he doesn't really have much curiousity about the world or about people who are not like him and doesn't want to know. I also see in Palin a bit of the idea that thinking deeply and not just repeating talking points is for pointy-headed intellectuals and she is proud not to be one of those. Almost a pride in not knowing anything about the world except "Putin sticking his head in Alaska's airspace." I mean, seriously, Putin is not exactly Mr. Democracy but does anyone really think that's something he is likely to do?

I do like her and wish her well. I think it is totally cool that she hunts and fishes and I like her family (and as far as candidates' spouses go, let's face it, Todd Palin is SMOKIN HOT!)

I don't think she'll get to be VP unless something happens in the next 2 weeks to change McCain's declining fortunes. I hope she does grow in her knowledge of things and I would even like to see her perhaps run for the Senate after her term(s) as Governor of Alaska end. I think perhaps she would have been good as Secretary of Energy in a McCain administration.

The fact is, he sort of "plucked" her too early and it shows. It's too bad, at first I thought even if McCain loses, she could run for prez in 2012 but now I don't think so.

People sometimes say that Reagan wasn't all that sharp or a deep thinker but he had "good instincts" and had the people in place to help him do things and that Palin would be the same if it came to that. Well, I hope so, but I recently read a book of Reagan's speeches and writings, and he was a lot deeper thinker than people gave him credit for. He had a core set of principles and he had done some real digging and thinking about how to achieve them.

One other thing, is all the criticism and even hate from the left any worse than the hate on the right towards Hillary Clinton? I think not.

Palin was a good sport. I think the appearance was neutral to mildly beneficial for her and the campaign.

But did everyone notice the line from the rap: "When I say Obama, you say Ayers!" My impression is that the McCain campaign deliberately inserted this line, and really hoped it would take off as a cheer at campaign rallies. But Poehler destroyed its utility, I think, by reciting it in a high-pitched, whiny voice.

Kitten,

I've seen a few GOP bloggers almost immediately after the skit predict (and encourage?) that the "Obama: AYERS!" chant be used at Palin rallies. See this from the Anchoress, for example.

It makes me suspect that this line was contributed by the McCain campaign, who I imagine had some input into the writing of the skit.

I could be wrong...but the way Poehler voiced these lines made me think she was registering a protest and was determined that the lines not achieve the viral effect that the McCain campaign wanted and hoped for.

Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin is defending Palin's appearance on the show in a new Huffington Post blog entry, wondering exactly what people expected. An excerpt:

"It's not Meet The Press. It doesn't 'ask the tough questions' or 'set the agenda.' It attempts, with varying degrees of success, to make people laugh. That's it. Whether they skewer and savage people in order to do so, they don't care. When you come on a show like that, you are prepared in advance to get worked over. Palin knew that. Palin came on to be a good sport. And she was. She was polite, gracious. (More so than some of the famous actors who come through there, believe me.)

"However, I assume that, like Meet the Press, SNL feels an obligation to offer their special forum to any and all public figures and officials who are current. Headline making. And in SNL's case, would make for a hit show. Several people decried SNL for giving her a spot on the show. You're kidding, right? The woman is the Vice Presidential nominee of one of the two major parties in this country. Don't put her on SNL? With all of her exposure and the Tina Fey performance? What reality are you in?"