I was surprised. I expected Darrell Hammond to play Biden, but Jason Sudeikis did a great job. Kudos to whoever wrote the segment. Tina Fey of course is masterful. The best satire is wicked satire, and these skits are wicked indeed!

It's too bad the rest of the show doesn't measure up well. It has become too formulaic, predictable, and boring. The guest host monologues are particularly routine, unfunny, and obnoxious, with the guest of the week inevitably bragging about his or her new movie. Then there is some kind of dumb skit with cast members pretending to be from the audience.

A "Second City" touring group came to where I work last winter, and they were much better than SNL. This is strange, because SNL has for so long relied upon Second City for new cast members. The problem has to be the writers. Al Franken supplied the idea for the recent McCain ad skit, and Bill Hader was great as the sarcastic voice-over, but the skit stood in stark relief to what the show usually provides.

I have to admit I don't watch the show enough to get a take on the musical offerings, but they would probably do well to let a band sing two songs in succession. When Elvis or the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan or other variety shows, they did two or three songs.

The cast members are being cheated, and should demand better writing.

Has anyone tried to interview Bill Ayers recently? I heard him on the radio about a year ago, and he was pretty repentant about his "Weatherman" activities. He is now a professor of Education at the University of Illinois-Chicago. If he is such a scourge to the Obama campaign, why, one might ask, does he hold the title "Distinguished Professor?"

I have to admit to taking perverse glee at the desperate tactics of the McCain campaign. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I don't buy the "hero" legend about McCain. Alexander Cockburn, a pretty good source, writes about McCain's "heroism" at counterpunch(dot)org(forward slash)cockburn04192008(dot)html. You have to pay to read the whole story.

McCain was shot down on his 23d bombing "mission" over North Vietnam. Most, if not all, the bombing that was inflicted on the country was indiscriminate about bombing civilians. McCain no doubt bombed many civilian targets in his 22 "successful" missions. Again, some "hero."

So, barring election theft, which is a strong possibility, McCain will go down to resounding defeat, and deservedly so. He's a crappy excuse for a human being, possibly more dangerous than the omnicriminal George W. Bush. We face a very difficult future no matter who becomes president, but it will be some satisfaction that McCain, Palin, and their supporters will live the rest of their lives with this ignominious defeat.

I predict a heart attack for McCain before the election. He hasn't looked healthy for months, and low-roading carries a built-in stress that does not bode well for longevity. McCain is a pretty crappy excuse for a human being anyway, and such a person running for President of the United States at age 72 had better have a strong constitution.

If McCain loses, the future doesn't look so good for Palin either. Impeachment and/or recall is likely when she returns to Alaska. She will have the added burden of holding on to her absurdly dysfunctional family.

As for the country as a whole, this election is likely the denouement of incivility in our various forms of interaction - TV, politics, work, social life, family life. McCain, by being such a piece of crap, might just achieve the heroism that he has been so mistakenly been ascribed: as the final poster boy of intemperance and nastiness, he can serve as the national exorcised demon.

The reason "Democrats" appear on Fox News, I'm afraid, is that they are partners in crime. They see Fox as legitimate because it serves their purposes as well as those of Rupert Murdoch and his minions.

It's all a con game. The con can't work without TV exposure. Fox can't survive without the guests, and the guests can't perpetuate the con without being on TV. What they both gain is to keep the conversation about side arguments, distracting from what really ails the country.

What parties to the con don't realize is that they are the ones being conned - by themselves. They believe that by keeping the public confused and distracted that they can continue with the totally corrupt business of corporate governance indefinitely. They even believe that by successfully transferring the treasury to Wall Street that they can keep the game alive for themselves.

The con is almost up. Just in terms of simple Newtonian Physics, a force that gathers momentum reaches a peak, and eventually clashes with countervailing forces. Corporations, Fox News, and politicians are all forces of darkness. They are temporary. They are now rapidly approaching the point where the momentum of our failing system is the immovable, unavoidable countervailing force.

If we think ten years from now, I think it is safe to say that at the very minimum there will no longer be such a phenomenon as Fox News, at least as we now know it. With any truth and good fortune, Sean Hannity, et. al. will all be in the jail cells they so richly deserve.