It was perhaps a deliberately brilliant piece of satire to have McCain/"Palin" making a pitch on the QVC network -- especially the part where Fey turns to the display of "Joe" action figures on a table off to the side. The McCain campaign HAS in fact been selling a collection of characters to the American people, archetypes taken from a bad commedia dell'arte sketch. First, the "Joe Sixpack" / "Joe the Plumber" types -- the first of whom was a deliberately vague figure meant to stand for a particular type of person, the second (equally as mythological, as it turned out) a particular person meant to stand for a whole group of people. Every campaign does this, but -- starting with Palin-as-hockey mom and McCain-as-prisoner, going on through the endless iterations (Tito the Builder, etc.) -- this version has taken it to a whole new level.

Of course, no commedia dell-arte set would be complete without a dark, dastardly villain. That role is being filled for the McCain campaign by Obama the Other [fill in the frightening type of your choice].

All one needs to do to see how empty this is, is look at the rhetoric coming from the other side. Obama-Biden is talking about actual hope and solutions to the economic problems facing the country. Not trying to trot out a bunch of empty action figures.

...as something aking to a pre-emptive concession "routine" (as opposed to speech), and seemed to acknowlege, if only tacitly, that Sarah Palin has become a gigantic thorn in his side, not to mention a huge nail in the last tire left on his Straight Talk Express.

The fact that he continues to campain relentlessly and in ever-incresingly ugly tones contrasts with last night's rather funny and pointed acknowlegement of his fast-fading fortunes, as did Palin's response to a question about her presumptive 2012 campain, while being "punk'd" by those Canadians on the telephone, as she said "Well maybe in eight years." Even she seems to know it's over -- at least for now. God willing, it's over forever. Then again, Tina Fey has found a near-immortal target for her mimicking talents, so hopefully the maverickuda doesn't totally disappear for a while. There's still some twisting and flopping to be done on the end of Fey's spear.

Altogether, though, it really did seem like a kind of good natured "See ya" as the "maverick maverick" (McCain's own description of the current version of himself, in his litany of strategies that "won't work") disappears in a cloud of duckshit and crackerdust.

It's a McZombie!

is Free Media.

John McCain, where has this side of you been the past three months? Nice and mavericky, but you didn't show that in many a day. Perhaps the SNL folks should have been your spokespeople, they did a much better job...

Last night's SNL reminded me why I ever liked McCain in the first place. If that McCain had run this year, I believe the race would be closer. (He'd still be losing, of course - when all the postmortems are done, the financial meltdown was easily the biggest nail in his coffin.)

But the ease of McCain's delivery last night, his willingness to mock himself is still there. This is the same guy who gave a good performance at the Alfred Smith dinner last month -- thank god Rove and the Bush thugs hijacked his campaign and derailed every political instinct he had.

BTW, I can't help but think McCain REALLY enjoyed the skewering Tina gave Palin last night. That same postmortem's going to chronicle how much McCain and Palin came to hate each other, you betcha.

As for Affleck? Well, he proved once again why he's regarded as one of the worst actors of our generation. What accent was he doing last night during the Olbermann sketch? Has he even seen Countdown? K.O. is ripe for satire, but Affleck's "performance", coupled with SNL's crack writing team (snort) really blew it.

Why the heck do you guys at Salon INSIST on refreshing pages for me? I'm halfway through an 8 minute long video and I get the page refreshed.

It's one reason I don't leave any Salon pages open. It seriously irritates me.

SNL's triple-cannonade at Democrats is, gee, its last pre-election shot, with only a couple of days to go before the big vote. What incredible timing! You don't think somebody up there loves John McCain, do you? Or that somebody at his own network just HATES Keith Olbermann? The McCain-Palin skit was both effective, funny and the best last-minute donation John McCain ever got. The Olbermann takeoff was just enthusiastically mean-spirited and nasty.

Alex is right on: McCain seemed so much more relaxed and coherent on SNL than he has on the campaign trail the last few weeks. It just confirmed my perception that he hasn't been comfortable with what he's been saying (although I'm not giving him a break on that: it's even more reprehensible to say the things he's been saying if he doesn't believe in them).

The Keith Olbermann sketch was dreadful. It wasn't funny, and it wasn't funny for waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long (that clip is almost nine minutes!). It was is if they thought if they kept going, maybe eventually they'd make someone laugh and instead they just became more and more irritating. I don't blame it on Affleck, though. The script didn't give him anything to work with, and nine minutes with nothing to work with is a loooong time to be on stage.

Since it's virtual reality time here, here's another laugh track to fantasize...another funny scenario:

Picture Adolf choosing Eva Braun for his running mate and appearing on Saturday Night Live..."Live from the Berchtesgaden, it's Saturday Night Live folks" as the music and applause rises to a fine crescendo.

That's the guy I remember liking. I remember feeling relieved when he got the nomination over the others, all of whom I utterly despised. And I truly thought he wasn't THAT much farther right than Hillary. God knows who he really is - but I swear, last night was the only time I'd seen Cindy McCain's smile look almost real, & she, almost a little relaxed - AND she was as stiff as a mannequin there!

I liked Affleck's sketch, tbh. I'm enjoying KO lately, but it hasn't escaped me that he's the left's answer to O'Reilly & company. We needed KO - and it also helps me to understand why the right wing needed Fox. That rush of popularity for all things Fox & the horror (the horror!) of talk radio started under Clinton, who they bashed without mercy. (note to Obama: I hope you're careful & as wise as you seem, but it won't matter, because they'll dredge up that time you called in sick to school & weren't really sick, at age 8)

We've been tormented - truly - under a regime that is taking the country in a direction we despise, & KO goes all out in saying so. I feel better watching him, for that reason. But I also understand that for utterly stupid & silly reasons, the right felt that way under Clinton. Maybe they hated paying so little for fuel - maybe even the wealthy among them hated doing better financially than they are now, because 'their team' wasn't in power. So they found solace in Fox. I'm equally pleased to have found solace in KO - and proud that 'our' talk radio involves Rachel Maddow, a distinctly pleasant, sensible & genuinely intelligent person rather than Rush Limbaugh's portly pink & evil blatherings... but I don't mind seeing KO played to comic effect.