Forget the Wednesday Presidential debate, the biggest political television event this week will happen Saturday Night, when Sarah Palin appears on Saturday Night Live.
The McCain Campaign, acknowledging the importance of the event, is taking Palin off the campaign trail for a Friday rehearsal and then the live appearance the next day.
So far the hilarious impressions by look-alike Tina Fey have hurt Sarah palin in the polls. The McCain people think an appearance by Palin herself will have the exact opposite effect.
Many celebrities have used SNL appearances as crisis management, making appearances to how they have a sense of humor about themselves to turn a negative into a positive.
The skits written for Palin are top secret right now, even Tina Fey doesn't know what they are. In fact, the Associated Press reported that Tina Fey hasn't even been contacted yet to be on this week's show.
Fey did tell Reuters that she has been having fun playing the Governor of Alaska, but she does not want to do it forever. In fact, Fey was quoted as saying that she "would leave the planet earth, if Palin wins in November." Saying she could not take another four years of being Sarah Palin.
Fey's Palin impression have been a huge boost to her career and to SNL's ratings.
It remains to be seen of SNL will return the favor to Sarah Palin by helping her candidacy this week. They are certainly giving her the forum. There are already rumblings at NBC that this week's show could be the highest rated ever.
3 comments:
Fey's Palin impression have been a huge boost to her career
LOL You have to be kidding. Fey has long been on top of the comedy writing world. You obviously have no clue of this or you would never write anything so ridiculous.
They are absolutely playing with fire having a dolt like Palin on a live broadcast that is comedy based this close to the general election. She can completely sink the ticket with no time to recover. This is a STUPID move on the Republicans' part. But then at this point they have nothing to lose....having already lost the election.
Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is "Racist, Sexist,
Vindictive, And Mean"
September 5, 2008
by Charley James -
"So Sambo beat the bitch!"
This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described
Barack Obama's win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a
restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party
presidential nomination.
According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who
asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with
five or six people when the subject of the Democrat's primary battle
came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables
would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her
meal mates joined in appreciatively.
"It was kind of disgusting," Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a
phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being
discovered telling folks in the "lower 48" about life near the North
Pole.
Then, almost with a sigh, she added, "But that's just Alaska."
Racial and ethnic slurs may be "just Alaska" and, clearly, they are
common, everyday chatter for Palin.
Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N'-Fetch-It, "darkie musical" swipe,
people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska's Aboriginal
people as "Arctic Arabs" - how efficient, lumping two apparently
undesirable groups into one ugly description - as well as the more
colourful "mukluks" along with the totally unimaginative "f**king
Eskimo's," according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed
for this article.
But being openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. According
to Alaskans interviewed for this article, she is also vindictive and
mean. We're talking Rove mean and Nixon vindictive.
No wonder the vast sea of white, cheering faces at the Republican
Convention went wild for Sarah: They adore the type, it's in their
genetic code. So much for McCain's pledge of a "high road" campaign;
Palin is incapable of being part of one.
Tough Getting People Who Know Her to Talk It's not easy getting people
in the 49th state to speak critically about Palin - especially people in
Wasilla, where she was mayor. For one thing, with every journalist in
the world calling, phone lines into Alaska have been mostly jammed since
Friday; as often as not, a recording told me that "all circuits are
busy" or numbers just wouldn't ring. I should think a state that's been
made richer than God by oil could afford telephone lines and cell towers
for everyone.
On a more practical level, many people in Alaska, and particularly
Wasilla, are reluctant to speak or be quoted by name because they're
afraid of her as well as the state Republican Party machine. Apparently,
the power elite are as mean as the winters.
"The GOP is kind of like organized crime up here," an insurance agent in
Anchorage who knows the Palin family, explained. "It's corrupt and
arrogant. They're all rich because they do private sweetheart deals with
the oil companies, and they can destroy anyone. And they will, if they
have to."
"Once Palin became mayor," he continued, "She became part of that inner
circle."
Like most other people interviewed, he didn't want his name used out of
fear of retribution. Maybe it's the long winter nights where you don't
see the sun for months that makes people feel as if they're under
constant danger from "the authorities." As I interviewed residents it
began sounding as if living in Alaska controlled by the state Republican
Party is like living in the old Soviet Union: See nothing that's
happening, say nothing offensive, and the political commissars leave you
alone. But speak out and you get disappeared into a gulag north of the
Arctic Circle for who-knows-how-long.
Alright, that's an exaggeration brought on by my getting too little
sleep and building too much anger as I worked this article. But there's
ample evidence of Palin's vindictive willingness to destroy people she
sees as opponents. Just ask the Wasilla town administrator she hired
before firing him because he rebelled against the way Palin demanded he
do his job, or the town librarian who refused to hold the book burning
Walpurgisnach Mayor Palin demanded.
Ironically, Palin was pushed into hiring the administrator by the party
poobahs who helped get her elected after she got herself into trouble
over a number of precipitous firings which gave rise to a recall
campaign.
"People who fought her attempt to oust the librarian are on her enemies
list to this day," states Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla resident and one of
the few Alaskans willing to speak on-the-record, for attribution, about
Palin. In fact, Kilkenny actually circulated an e-mail letter about
Palin that was verified and printed by The Nation.
For good measure, Palin booted the Wasilla police chief from office
because, she told a local newspaper, he "intimidated" her.
Running on Extreme Fringe Evangelical Views Sarah Palin drew early
attention from state GOP apparatchiks when, during her first mayoral
campaign, she ran on an anti-abortion platform.
Normally, political parties do not get involved in Alaskan municipal
elections because they are nonpartisan. But once word of her extreme
fringe evangelical views made its way to Juneau, the state capitol,
state Republicans tossed some money behind her campaign.
Once in office, Palin set out to build a machine that chewed up anyone
who got in her way. The good, Godly Christian turns out to be anything
but.
"She's doesn't like different opinions and she refuses to compromise,"
Kilkenny notes. "When she was mayor, she fought ideas that weren't hers.
Worse, ideas weren't evaluated on their merits but on the basis of who
proposed them."
Sound familiar? Palin may well be Dick Cheney's reincarnate.
Something else has a familiar Republican ring to it: Her tax policies,
and a "refund surpluses but borrow for the future" attitude.
According to Kilkenny and others in Wasilla as well as Juneau, Palin
reduced progressive property taxes for businesses while mayor and
increased a regressive sales tax which even hits necessities such as
food. The tax cuts she promoted in her St. Paul speech actually
benefited large corporate property owners far more than they benefited
residents. Indeed, Kilkenny insists that many Wasilla home owners
actually saw their tax bill skyrocket to make up for the shortfall. Two
other Wasillian's with whom I spoke said property taxes on their modest,
three bedroom homes rose during the Palin regime.
To an outsider, it would seem hard to do, but an oil-rich town with zero
debt on the day she was inaugurated mayor was left saddled with $22
million of debt by the time she moved away to become governor -
especially since nothing was spent on things such as improving the
city's infrastructure or building a much-needed sewage treatment plant.
So what did Mayor Palin spend the taxpayer's money on, if not fixing
streets and scrubbing sewage?
For starters, she remodelled her office. Several times over, as a matter
of fact.
Then Palin spent $1 million on an unnecessary, new park that no one
other than the contractors and Palin seemed to want. Next, Sarah doled
out more than $15 million of taxpayer money for a sports complex that
she shoved through even though the city did not own clear title to the
land; now, seven years later, the matter is still in litigation and
lawyer fees are said to be close to at least half of the original
estimated price of the facility.
She also worked hard to get voters approval of a $5.5 million bond
proposal for roads that could have been built without borrowing.
Anchorage may not be the center of the financial universe but, like good
Republicans everywhere, Sarah Palin knows how to please Alaskan bankers
and bond dealers.
For good measure, she turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores
and disconnected parking lots.
Sarah Barracuda
En route to the governor's igloo, Palin managed to land what Anne
Kilkenny says is the plumb political appointment in the state: Chair of
Alaska's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC), a $122,400 per year
patronage slot with no real authority to do anything other than hold
meetings. She took the job despite having no background in energy issues
and, as it turned out, not liking the work.
"She hated the job," an OGCC staff member who is not authorized to speak
with the news media told me. "She hated the hours and she hated what
little work there was to do. But she couldn't figure out a way to get
out of the thing without offending Gov. Murkowski" and the state
Republican Party regulars, some of whom were pissed off they didn't get
appointed.
But ever the opportunist, Palin quickly concocted a way. First, she
waged a campaign with the local news media claiming that the position
was overpaid and should be abolished - despite the fact that she lobbied
Murkowski hard to get it. Then, mounting what she saw as a white horse,
Palin raised a cloud of dust by resigning from the OGCC and riding away
with an undeserved reputation as a "reformer."
But when a local reporter dared to suggest that the reformer Empress has
no clothes, Palin tried to get her fired.
"She came at me like I was trying to steal her kids," said the targeted
reporter, who now works for an oil company in Anchorage. "I heard she
had a wild temper and vicious mean streak but it's nothing like you can
imagine until she turns it on you."
Not surprising since some of her high school classmates still openly
call her "Sarah Barracuda," Kilkenny insists.
Still, as a Republican Party hack Palin managed to get herself elected
running under the false flag of a "reformer."
And what did she bring to the job? No legislative experience other than
a city council of a village of 5,000 people, which is smaller than some
high schools in Chicago. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial
experience; after all, she needed to hire a city administrator to run
Wasilla. No executive experience, except for almost being recalled as
mayor. A philosophy of setting public policy based on one word: No.
And what has she done since winning the job?
According to Kilkenny, nothing. Well, nothing other than suggesting the
state's multi-multi-million dollar, oil-generated surplus be distributed
to residents and finance future state needs by borrowing money. Gee,
doesn't that sound precisely what George Bush did with the surplus he
inherited from Bill Clinton in 2001 and we all know in what great shape
Bush's economic policies left the nation.
It may explain why, when asked by reporters, including me, what she
thought about Palin being picked to be McCain's running mate, her
mother-in-law replied with a sardonic, "What has Sarah done to qualify
her to be vice president?" Of course, when the woman - said by many I
spoke with to be well-respected in Wasilla - was running to succeed
Palin as mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her, so that may explain the
family tension.
As Governor, Palin gave the legislature no direction and budget
guidelines, according to the chair of a legislative committee. But then
she staged a huge grandstand play of line-item vetoing countless
projects, calling them pork. "They were restored because of public
outcry and legislative action," the aide said. "She vetoed them mostly
because she had no idea what they were or why they were important."
But it was enough to get the McCain, who is mostly unobservant of the
world around him anyway, to think Palin has a reputation as being
"anti-pork".
In fact, Juneau observers note that Palin kept her hand stuck out as far
as anyone for pork ladled out by indicted Sen. Ted Stevens. She only
opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be
politically unwise to keep supporting it, these same insiders assert.
Then, Palin fell back on her old habits and publicly humiliated him for
pork-barrel politics.
As for being "ready on day one" to be commander in chief, despite the
repeated public claims she's made, the Alaska National Guard commander
said that, "she has made no command decisions, other than sending some
troops to help fight a few brush fires and march in parades at county
fairs."
"Sambo Beat the Bitch"
"Palin is a conniving, manipulative, a**hole," someone who thinks these
are positive traits in a governor told me, summing up Palin's tenure in
Alaska state and local politics.
"She's a bigot, a racist, and a liar," is the more blunt assessment of
Arnold Gerstheimer who lived in Alaska until two years ago and is now a
businessman in Idaho.
"Juneau is a small town; everybody knows everyone else," he adds. "These
stories about what she calls blacks and Eskimos, well, anyone not white
and good looking actually, were around long before she became a glint in
John McCain's rheumy eyes. Why do I know they're true? Because everyone
who isn't aboriginal or Indian in Alaska talks that way."
"Sambo beat the bitch" may be everyday language up in the bush. Whether
it - and the outlook, politics and worldview Palin reflects when she
says such things in public - should be part of a presidential campaign
is another thing altogether. The comment says as much about McCain as it
does about Palin, and it says a lot of things about Americans who
overlook such statements (as well as her record) and vote anyway for
McCain.
by Charley James
Tina Fey is more qualified to be VP than Palin.
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