In 1998, I attended the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington. A friend who is a lobbyist there escorted me to a weekend's worth of events. As we moved around a brunch reception one late morning, I turned and suddenly faced Henry Kissinger. I remember thinking, at that exact moment, that here before me was the man who defined the horrible abuses of American political and military power that have cast such an enormous shadow over America's reputation since the Vietnam war. Not exactly to a Hitchens-esque degree, I was horrified. My political opposite one foot away from me. "Alec, this is Henry Kissinger," my friend said. I paused and said, "I'm sorry to hear about your mother."
Kissinger's mother, Paula, had died the month before, at the age of 97. She had lived in the same formerly German-Jewish community in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan for decades. Kissinger looked me in the eye and, with what I believed was genuine emotion, said, "Thank you for saying that to me." I mention this because I wonder, what did some of you people actually think would happen with Palin on SNL?
Saturday Night Live is a comedy show. It's not Meet the Press. It doesn't "ask the tough questions" or "set the agenda." It attempts, with varying degrees of success, to make people laugh. That's it. Whether they skewer and savage people in order to do so, they don't care. When you come on a show like that, you are prepared in advance to get worked over. Palin knew that. Palin came on to be a good sport. And she was. She was polite, gracious. (More so than some of the famous actors who come through there, believe me.)
However, I assume that, like Meet the Press, SNL feels an obligation to offer their special forum to any and all public figures and officials who are current. Headline making. And in SNL's case, would make for a hit show. Several people decried SNL for giving her a spot on the show. You're kidding, right? The woman is the Vice Presidential nominee of one of the two major parties in this country. Don't put her on SNL? With all of her exposure and the Tina Fey performance? What reality are you in?
If you think an appearance on Saturday Night Live would sway voters and actually affect the outcome of the election, you may have more contempt for the electorate of this country than the Republican National Committee does. And that's a lot of contempt.
Loading comments… 
Think women, THINK!
BTW .. YOU were great as usual.
Obama'08
I even wrote an email to the producers!
But after seeing the show... I relaxed. It was nothing like I expected. So yes, I was wrong and Palin's appearance was nothing like a "free political ad" for her. Now I, as well as other faithful watchers, will happily continue watching SNL, even after this election buzz disappears
...we spend more time divided than we have to; when at any monent we can hold a hand and unconditio
...having Palin on the show was a grand gesture of what is possible, when we project the instabilit
-tmb
I think most of us see, and expect a good laugh from SNL, and nothing more. We seem insulted
and disgusted by Republican smear and fear tactics this time. So, slow as she goes - we all have
been through an enormous educationa
The world has become increasing
If you think back, four years ago people were still learning how to use computers, and others were starting to make the transition from dial-up modems to cable broadband. Now if I want to learn more about a candidate, all I have to do is type in their name into a search engine and out comes details (and blunders) surroundin
So are people any 'smarter'? Perhaps they are 'more aware' due largely to technology and communicat
Seeing Alec playing up his liberal ideals with the real Sarah Palin was just awesome. It was great to have everyone just have a good time and to make people laugh because that's what SNL is about. It's all about comedy for the Left and Right and the Centrists.
Last weekend was well done. I think Mark Wahlberg had bigger fish to fry anyway....