Comments on Fourth Wave: How many times have you seen this today?

jesurgislac, that's true, perhaps--I'll stipulate ...

2008-10-10T11:30:00.000-04:00

jesurgislac, that's true, perhaps--I'll stipulate to it for now--but it doesn't prove what you seem to be saying it does. The reason he was appointed is that the election is close. Whatever the results were, that's a hell of a lot of people who either knowingly voted for an uninformed idiot or somehow missed the signs. It's no comfort that these people were a few thousand less than a majority of voters.

Thank you all for the great comments. I was going ...

2008-10-07T21:35:00.000-04:00

Thank you all for the great comments. I was going to respond to you each individually here, but my response was getting too long, so I ended up writing another post. Dissent is welcome if you feel that I've got it all wrong.

while I appreciate your breakdown & certainly ...

2008-10-07T16:50:00.000-04:00

while I appreciate your breakdown & certainly get where you're coming from, I find it very hard to believe that there's anyone who loves watching Tina Fey satirize Palin, and also is planning to vote for McCain/Palin.

I understand the disconnect you're feeling, but in actual votes, I don't think it will make a difference.

...I couldn't quite articulate the weird combin...

2008-10-07T16:20:00.000-04:00
...I couldn't quite articulate the weird combination of hilarity and discomfort these SNL's skits instilled in me.

This is the point. Satire, in particular, isn't (just) supposed to be funny. Tina Fay isn't just trying to amuse, she's trying to provoke as well.

If Palin's folksy, patronizing appeal been neutralized, it's in no small thanks to Fey. SNL has been a real player in this campaign.

This post is a point well taken, but I agree with ...

2008-10-06T11:18:00.000-04:00
This post is a point well taken, but I agree with Erin's comment: it's not SNL's job to bring home the political reality that Palin is a threat.

She's not dumb, in fact she's running a smoke screen for McCain, because she's cute and dynamic and can talk without people realizing she's not saying anything. I disagree with her at every turn, but thought she looked great in the debate. I'm reasonably smart, but I find it hard to really hear and understand what either side is saying when the pace of dialogue is fast, as in the debate. I have to go back and review the substance later, and only then did it become obvious how little she actually said. Most people don't take the time to do that.

When it's all about soundbites, forgetting substance, Palin looks good. Better than Biden, and better than McCain. Not better than Obama, but he's old news and she's the flavor of the month. That is beyond scary.

You make an important distinction. Palin is not a...

2008-10-06T09:58:00.000-04:00
You make an important distinction. Palin is not a bumbling idiot regardless of her folksy stylings. Palin is Cruella Deville - (and if she cant's scare you than nobody will) Palin is replete with baby polar bear pelts and all. She represents malicious intentional evil and we really do have a duty to thwart and expose her.

But it's not SNL's job to make Sarah Palin look...

2008-10-06T09:37:00.000-04:00
But it's not SNL's job to make Sarah Palin look bad or good or scary or anything. SNL is just supposed to be funny, to hold a wavy circus mirror up to our already twisted contemporary political landscape and let us laugh a bit here and there.

That's the point, right there. It's not SNL's responsibility to protect us from Sarah Palin. It's the responsibility of the rest of us out here to reiterate Sarah Palin's inexperience, her frightening ideas and dogma, her propensity to promote her friends and destroy the careers of others who disagree with her.

My partner, my parents and I all watched the SNL rendering of the VP debate together. We laughed at Queen Latifah and at Tina Fey and we all thought Tina had done another brilliant parody. And then we talked about the real Palin illegally scoffing at subpoenas and her breathtakingly frightening rhetoric.

Tina Fey's rendition of Sarah Palin is not going to change anyone's mind about the VP candidate; those who believe the woman is a ridiculous and irresponsible choice for McCain are still going to think that and those Joe Six-Packs who are already enamored of her will stay that way. Anyone who is still undecided will be swayed more by other actual news venues than by whether or not Tina Fey plays Sarah Palin next week on SNL again.

certainly we all knew W. was an uninformed idio...

2008-10-06T03:52:00.000-04:00
certainly we all knew W. was an uninformed idiot and we elected him anyway.

I do get so perpetually tired of that myth being promoted.

Bush lost the 2000 election. We all know he wasn't elected in 2000: the courts appointed him.

We can't be as sure about 2004 as we can be about 2000, because there was less paper trail in 2004 thanks to riggable voting machines, but it looks fairly probable that Bush wasn't elected in 2004, either.

I know why loyal Republicans won't acknowledge that their guy lost in 2000 and probably lost in 2004. But why do people who aren't loyal Republicans continue to repeat the Bush myth?

Maybe you and Loup are right... certainly we all k...

2008-10-05T22:37:00.000-04:00
Maybe you and Loup are right... certainly we all knew W. was an uninformed idiot and we elected him anyway. Perhaps we need Matt Damon back to talk about how Palin could have the codes for nuclear missile launch if elected - 'cause that point scared me.