give me a damn break McCain camp calls Fey's Palin portrayal ‘sexist’

gtc08 · Sep 16, 2008

In a war of words reminiscent of Vice President Dan Quayle taking on television character Murphy Brown in the 1992 presidential election, John McCain’s camp is slamming Tina Fey’s impersonation of Governor Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live,” while Cindy McCain is calling out the ladies of “The View.”“SNL” had its highest rated season premiere since 2002, but some members of the McCain campaign were not laughing.
Millions of viewers tuned in to see “30 Rock” star and “SNL” alum Tina Fey portray Sarah Palin alongside Amy Poehler, who did her Sen. Hillary Clinton impression.
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“The portrait was very dismissive of the substance of Sarah Palin, and so in that sense, they were defining Hillary Clinton as very substantive, and Sarah Palin as totally superficial,” McCain advisor Carly Fiorina told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday. “I think that continues the line of argument that is disrespectful in the extreme, and yes I would say sexist.”
The Fey/Poehler sketch satirized such topics as Palin’s religious beliefs and foreign policy.
“Just because Sarah Palin has different views than Hillary Clinton does not mean that she lacks substance. She has a lot of substance,” Fiorina said.
Palin, on the other hand, found the sketch amusing, according to her spokesperson. The governor and the press corps watched the sketch in the back of her plane, laughing at Tina and Amy’s satirical take on the two politicians.
“She thought it was quite funny, particularly because she once dressed up as Tina Fey for Halloween,” Palin spokesperson Tracey Schmitt told CBS.

im sure willie99, darwinian, and the rest of the mccainiacs thought it was sexist to. cant make this up.

RobFunk · Sep 16, 2008

That's funny, because an article I read this morning said that Fail'n thought it was funny.

I guess once the camp figured out how damaging it was they had to throw the spin on.

RobFunk · Sep 16, 2008

In the words of snoop dog : "It don't stop and it won't stop beyaatch"

Will Tina Fey encore on 'SNL' as Sarah Palin?
By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer
Mon Sep 15, 10:22 AM PDT

Never mind all those questions about who will win the election: The more pressing concern for many viewers is whether Tina Fey will return to play Gov. Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live."

The guest appearance by the show's former cast member and head writer was by all accounts a virtuoso impersonation and a viral hit. But Fey stars in NBC's weekly prime-time comedy "30 Rock," and it's unclear if she'll be moonlighting on "SNL" to skewer the Republican vice presidential candidate, to whom she bears a much-remarked-upon resemblance.

Fey -- and the will-she-or-won't-she suspense that preceded her appearance -- helped make NBC's "Saturday Night Live" a ratings smash in its season kickoff (which was hosted by Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps).

Then the 5 1/2-minute segment pairing Fey with cast-member Amy Poehler (as Sen. Hillary Clinton) also has become a global Internet sensation.

The voters, um, viewers seemed to have spoken. In preliminary numbers measuring the nation's major cities, "SNL's" 34th-season premiere logged a 7.4 rating and 18 percent share of audience -- the largest viewership for a "SNL" season debut since 2001, and up 64 percent from last year's opener, according to Nielsen Media Research.

(For this survey, a ratings point represents approximately 780,000 households. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.)

With the Alaska governor poised to be a prominent part of the political race through Election Day as Sen. John McCain's running mate, and possibly serving as vice president after that, there's little doubt she'll be spoofed again by "SNL," which historically has had particular relevance in its political parodies.

Will Fey be back in the role?

"We are taking it day-by-day," said "SNL" spokesman Marc Liepis on Monday.

Could she be back as soon as this Saturday's show?

"We don't even have a script written yet," Liepis replied.

Under any circumstances, it was unlikely Fey would make an encore appearance on this week's "SNL," in as much as the New York-based show will air the night before Sunday's Emmy broadcast, live from Los Angeles. With "30 Rock" having snagged several nominations, including Fey as best comic actress, she is expected to be on hand for those festivities.

For the long term, "SNL" executive producer Lorne Michaels reportedly has an as-yet-undisclosed "Plan B" and "Plan C" for a Palin impersonator, in lieu of Fey.

In the meantime, as Liepis noted, "She has a day job."