Palin on SNL

Last weekend vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin appeared on Saturday Night Live. Tina Fey continued her impersonation of Palin from the previous week. The SNL ratings were off the charts. They got around 14 million viewers. SNL viewership is up this year, sharply contrasting with last year's numbers. The real question is whether Palin's visit to SNL will impact the election. Like everyone else, I did some Google searches to see what various authorities on the subject were saying.

ABC News reports that this showed Parlin could take a joke. She only spent 6 minutes on camera during the show. There are a lot of other people doing Sarah Palin impersonations these days. Nothing on the SNL show was too outrageous. Speaking of impersonations, Lisa Nova is doing Palin impersonations on YouTube. However I will not be watching Lisa Nova for her brilliant satire any time soon. If you have ever seen a Lisa Nova video, you know what I am talking about.

Yahoo News reported that the Palin visit to SNL made her favorability ratings drop a bit. However experts agree that it will have no impact whatsoever on the election results. The greatest impact is to the SNL show itself. Some Republicans may be thinking that this is too serious a time for Palin to be appearing on SNL.

The Wired Blog said that people all over the United States were doing Google searches on SNL plus Palin. Like I mentioned earlier, I did my own Google searches to research what others were thinking about the SNL appearance. NBC Universal has been diligent in issuing take down notices to YouTube so that the SNL skit would not be shown. I doubt this has anything to do with Palin herself or the election. This is just NBC protecting its copyright.

Personally I enjoyed the first impersonation done by Tina Fey on SNL. It was actually funny. I did not tune in to see Palin herself come on the show the following week. However I do credit her with having the audacity to actually appear. It takes strong character to be able to laugh when people are making fun of you.

VP Debate

Palin came out in the vice presidential debate, proving she is a force to be reckoned with. She walked up to Biden and asked if she could call him Joe. I confess I did not watch the actual debate. However I caught a couple shows with analysts going bonkers over Palin's part in the debate.

You had to love how Palin controlled the debate, connecting with the crowd and the viewer audience. She was seen winking on more than one occasion. She shocked analysts when she mentioned that she advocated an expansion of the vice presidential powers. LOL.

Biden had a tough job. He could not come out swinging. Otherwise he would look bad as if he was beating up a woman. Biden was careful not to correct Palin so as not to appear to aggressive. I give him some credit. He did hold his own. Then again he has a lot of experience.

Palin was the underdog. Nobody thought she would fare well in the debate. She proved them wrong. Now its up to McCain and Obama to duke it out in their second debate.

McCain Blasts SEC Chairman

John McCain has called for the firing of Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). This is quite an aggressive move by McCain. He cites poor wall street oversight by the SEC. In doing so, McCain states that Cox has betrayed the public trust.

There is no question that the economy and stock market have been hit hard recently. Speculator have been selling stocks short. In other words, they have been betting that stock prices will go down. Not only that, some have been doing naked short sales. Investors often blame these short sellers when stock prices fall. Whether or not they are the direct cause is a point of debate.

We should return to some facts of the matter. The SEC did eliminate something called the uptick rule for short selling. Essentially you could not sell a stock short unless the price was increasing. Another fact is that even good companies are suffering due to the recent events in the stock market.

Now let’s discuss the fate of chairman Cox. The chairman of the SEC is appointed by the president of the United States. Bush has come out and said Cox has his full support. Cox also rebutted McCain’s call with a 10 point list of positive actions the SEC is taking to deal with the stock market.

So why would McCain make such an aggressive move against Cox? He previously had stated that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. Big mistake. His campaign is also losing some steam as the news of Sarah Palin wears off. I would hope that McCain would work on some real action to help the economy instead of some cheap methods like declaring the SEC chairman should be fired.

Sarah Palin's Daughter

The big news for a while was that Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant. Luckily the democrats are very gentle when dealing with Palin. They don't want to appear to be attacking women in general.

A funny thing about this story is that it generated all kinds of Internet rumors. I would be reading message boards about company stocks, and I would see stories about Palin, her children, and her future grandchildren. That was spooky.

Personally I don't care if Sarah Palin is pregnant. I don't care if her daughter is pregnant. And I do not care if her daughter is married or not and pregnant. All that matters is whether Palin can do the job of Vice President well. I suspect she can given her experience in Alaska. Her choice as Vice President may have been the move that pulled me to the McCain side.

Another Reason to Vote McCain

Here is another reason to vote for John McCain. Heidi Montag (of The Hills fame) has thrown her support behind McCain. This in and of itself is of no great consequence. However you normally hear about her so called real life relationship with Spencer. It is refreshing to hear something about her that has nothing to do with The Hills.

McCain Chooses VP

John McCain has announced his choice for Vice President. It is Alaska governor Sarah Palin. This was quite a bold move for McCain. It seems obvious that McCain is targeting women voters. But enough about McCain. Let's talk about Palin.

Sarah Palin is a 44 year old mother of five. She has a newborn baby less than a year old. Her son enlisted in the army just last year. She used to be a union member. Her husband still is. She is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. What a resume!

There are some challenges with McCain's choice. He is 72. She is almost 30 years younger than him. She does not have experience with foreign policy. However she does have a track record of fighting oil companies in Alaska.

The real question is whether Palin can lure Democratic supports of Hillary Clinton to vote for McCain-Palin.

Edwards Affair

John Edwards has finally come out and admitted that he had an affair with Rielle Hunter. He also confessed that he had lied about this relationship in the past. However Edwards continues to deny he is the father of Hunter's daughter Frances. The National Inquirer broke this story back in October 2007. They insist that Frances is the love child of Edwards and Hunter.

Hunter has professed her love for Edwards. But Edwards on the other hand denies being in love with Hunter. A staffer for Edwards has come forward stating that he instead is the father of the baby. Why am I having a tough time believing that one? Oh yeah. Edwards lied to the press repeatedly.

Apparently Hunter traveled with Edwards for about six months. That left plenty of time for extramarital activities between them. There are some additional sketchy details involving Hunter. Her company was paid $100k by Edwards' political action committee for 4 videos she produced. Nice touch.

The only real question is what impact will this have on Edwards. Bill Clinton lied and had an affair with minimal damage. Can Edwards pull this off as well? I do not think so. We already knew that Clinton was Slick Willie. However Edwards came across as a different kind of man sticking by his wife that had cancer. Now that the truth is revealed, coupled with the fact that he is not as good a liar as Clinton, might spell the end of his political career. I can say for sure that I am never going to vote for the man. What say you?