Palin and Fey

I'm watching Keith, and they're making a good point, one I've thought of before:

Saturday Night Live has a long history of satirizing politicians.  Will Ferrell's George W. Bush, Dana Carvey's George H.W. Bush, Chevy Chase's Gerald Ford and Darrell Hammond's everybody come to mind as the most memorable impersonations.  But until Tina Fey played Sarah Palin, never before had there been a mainstream comic who looked and seemed exactly like the person he or she was personifying.

In her first outing as Sarah Palin, Tina Fey hit the nail on the head so well that, had you been flipping through channels, you could have easily mistaken her for the real Sarah Palin, and not some caricature (though Palin herself is pretty close to caricature these days).  In her second outing, making fun of the Couric interview, the SNL writers didn't really have to come up with anything new; most of what Fey said - to enormous laughter - were words that Palin herself had spoken exactly!

It's not good for Governor Palin - or the McCain campaign - that the real Sarah Palin and Tina Fey's Sarah Palin are quickly becoming virtually indistinguishable.  Palin can do a lot to help repair her image - or at least change the conversation - on Thursday night, but much of the damage may already be done.  The candidacy of this woman to be Vice President is either hilarious, frightening or - if you're like me - both.  While Tina Fey is hilarious and dead-on in her impersonation, here's hoping that she'll be searching for a new role to play come November 5th.