Sunday Roundup

Saturday Night Live hasn't been this politically relevant since Chevy Chase's Gerald Ford was tumbling over desks. Not only did Hillary mention the show during Tuesday's debate, not only did her campaign reps spend the week citing an SNL sketch showing members of the press fawning over Obama as validation of the Clinton camp's claims that the media have been unfair to Hillary, but there she was last night, yukking it up "Live from New York!" According to Time, Bill Clinton even telephoned Tina Fey to thank her; he apparently appreciated her ringing on-air endorsement of Hillary ("Bitches get stuff done!") so much he was willing to ignore her assertion that Hillary and Bill "are having exactly as much sex with each other as George Bush and Jeb Bush are." Will Bill's splenetic performance on the campaign trail this year prompt an SNL sequel: "Dick in a Ballot Box"?

Comments

[ibsteve2u]

Hmmm...hey, Obama...here's an idea for you:

Have a cameo of Tina Fey saying "Bitches get stuff done!".

Then, that segment of Hillary's ad where she answers the red phone at 3:00 AM.

Then, a mushroom cloud shots of an exploding nuclear weapon.

Then close with a voice-over:

"But would it be the right stuff? Remember the Iraq war vote."

[escapee]

Tina Fey knew exactly what she was saying when she said "bitch is the new black!" It was a racial remark. Plain and simple!

[Yasmine]

THIS was the Clinton campaign TRYING TO INTIMIDATE the Media by accusing the Media.of being UNFAIR.........................SO THEY START HITTING ON OBAMA.
I am afraid if she becomes President....................we will see her silencing criticism too.
THAT WILL TEACH THESE TALKING HEADS IN THE MEDIA not to be intimidated now. worse may come ...............

[cacki]

god, I missed it. SNL and Tina Fey are turning the race around. Bitches forever--go Hillary!!

[AjazHaque]

Will Hillary Clinton continue if she wins either Texas or Ohio?
While Barack Obama is now leading in opinion polls in Texas, he is still behind in Ohio & Rhode Island. If the last 11 contests are anything to go by, Barack tends to close the gap and go past Hillary in the last few days before the primary.

There is a possibility however that Hillary Clinton could win Ohio. The question arises, does she then fold her tent and go home or does she take this as a signal to keep going. The Clintons are known to be fighters, so chances are she will want to continue thus causing ripples in the Democratic party.

It will then be time for Senators, Members of Congress, Al Gore and other Democratic party elders to step forward and endorse Barack Obama to bring this race to an end. The longer this race goes on the more nasty it will get and that can only help McCain in the general election.

However, if Hillary Clinton wins both Texas and Ohio (which is unlikely) then she will have a case to continue.

[old91A10]

@sotonightthatimightsee
These clips demonstrate "...that the media have been unfair...." to Obama as well. They have just been doing it to Clinton much longer. From my point of view, CNN and Fox drivel usually translate into ridicule of CNN and Fox, rather than providing reliable information about progressive candidates.

[old91A10]

Although ignored, perhaps as uninteresting, "... that the media have been unfair...." is noticeable and countable. Sometimes subtly, other times brutally -- by innuendo and unsubstantiated claims -- often with misleading headlines and captions -- even with supposedly unbiased moderators, etc.

In both non-MSM and MSM publications, the consensus seems to be that the candidates do not differ substantially on policy and position (I disagree a bit on this point). Experience seems to have been characterized as of little relevance. Likewise, one repeatedly reads that this campaign comes down to some kind of charismatic or "it" factor. With this latter case, it becomes very relevant "... that the media have been unfair...."

By the way, Ms. Huffington, what was the point or intent of this article? Do you think it stands up to a test of "... that the media have been unfair...?"

[k8edidnt]

Well said. Actually exceptionally well said. Thanks old 91!

[Yasmine]

IT IS UNFAIR TO CLAIM THAT THE MEDIA HAS BEEN UNFAIR.
LET ME TELL YOU WHY ?
1- being UNFAIR means you are purposefully distorting positive news into a negative. Saying that Hillary was losing because she had in fact LOST 11 Primaries in a row was the TRUTH.
2- Was the media UNFAIR when they decided to show again and again Hillary tearing up and making people sorry for her, and saying that she might be the COME BACK KID ?
NO................it was OBVIOUS FAVORITISM !!
3- when on SUNDAY Feb 24 ABC THIS WEEK deleted DELETED the word REALLY from that unfortunate line of MICHELLE saying for the first time ....she was REALLY proud of her country........................THAT was being ............ UNFAIR TO OBAMA.
IF I WERE MICHELLE, I WOULD EVEN SUE ABC THIS WEEK. even CHRIS MNATTHEWS and DAVID GERGEN omitted the word REALLY when they were analyzing her saying.............YES THESE 2 WERE UNFAIR and INCORRECT .

[k8edidnt]

Oh my God. Give it a rest. The Obama supporters are the nastiest bloggers in the history of politics. You don't think the Clintons have paid their dues yet? Of course when you realize the highest rated tv shows are those that demean, humiliate and eliminate people it is easy to see the glee these people must experience venting their vitriolic views in print. I've been ill for 18 months. I got sick 7 weeks after I lost my son to suicide so I have had lots of time for political tv and an acute awareness of the unfairness of life. It has been really hard to watch this process unfold. It was easier when I was so busy I only had 5 minutes to catch up on the news. The news is no longer news. It is opinions.

[asl3676]

I agree....Arianna give it a rest...You're becoming the blogosphere's Maureen Dowd.....I don't know what Hillary's campaign has done to get you upset but enough already...

[jaycasey]

I enjoy both Arianna and Maureen Dowd's witting but pithy observations. It helps that I agree with them. Hillery has done plenty to get people upset - let me see.... there's the Iraq War ok, the cozying up to the telecomm lobbyists, there's the whining and lack of inspiration. I could go on and on - but I won't. Let's just be glad we have Obama to bring us out of the Bush-induced slump.

[mageduley]

The media is actually giving Hillary positive press for her tantrums and her claims that the media is pro-Obama.They"re spinning it as a rallying cry for feminists. Taking lead from Tina Fey"s sketch on SNL, her tantrum is somehow being spun into an ownership of the word, "bi*ch." You have people on tv talking about the double standards that women face in politics (i.e., men are assertive and women are bi*ches).

Now, I won"t deny that women face double standards. And I know that there is some truth in that analysis. But this is not Jane Doe, this is Hillary Clinton.

Guess what, that "double standard" theory doesn"t fly when her opponent has gone out of his way to be as respectful as he possibly can towards her (despite her repeated attacks). I could see if she was running against some sexist prick. But she"s not. Yet she wants to take her anger at the media and re-direct it towards Obama and his success?

Why doesn"t the media focus it"s attention on how disrespectful she has been towards him? She won"t acknowledge his victories; she mocks his message; she scolds his supporters; she calls him an empty suit; she calls his words, "cheap," and his hope, "false." The list goes on and on.

I don"t care if she"s a woman, man or whatever . . . when you"re wrong, you"re wrong.

"Shame on you Barack Obama"?!?!?! Who is she to talk to him like he"s some 4 year old? This ain"t pre-school and her condescending attitude is getting real tired, real fast.

Senator Obama is a grown man. He"s just as accomplished as she is, (check their senate records) yet she wants to go around the country and call him some naive rookie? She dismisses his supporters and ignores the impact that he has had.

It"s never good enough. He can win 11 straight states by an average of 33%, but it"s still NEVER GOOD ENOUGH! He can expand the Democratic party by bringing in Independents, cross-over Republicans and first-time voters, but it"s NEVER GOOD ENOUGH! He can draw crowds of 20,000 but it"s NEVER GOOD ENOUGH! He can win more states (24 to 11), have a commanding lead in Pledged delegates, have a strong lead in the popular vote . . . but it"s still NEVER GOOD ENOUGH!

This is a must read: Read the rest
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/03/biased-media-why-im-angry.php

[jaycasey]

As soon as Tina Fey comes on I turn the channel. Same thing happens when Sen Clinton comes on air. I don't know what it is about them - listening to them is like having my nails pulled out.

[k8edidnt]

Hillary got a little choked up and they played it as if she had thrown herself on the floor sobbing and wailing. Talk about acting like a 4 year old. It's name calling if you use his middle name? He acts like he accidentally ended up running for president. This was a plan and the fact that it is coming to fuition says a lot for this country but he doesn't have a long record to defend or stand behind. Trust me. He is made of teflon now but if he gets the nomination the press will use super glue to attach every bit of dirt they can find to him. Bottom line is men would rather see a dust mite occupying the oval office than see a woman there. At least we know Hillary's faults so she can go right to work if she wins. If he wins he will spend the first couple of years answering special prosecutors about some scandal the press will create.

[Yasmine]

BRAVO BRAVO ......mageduley
when Hillary MOCKS and ridicules OBAMA..............she is mocking all his supporters and endorsers.............as naive fools.

I think she should be ashamed !!!!

[boomerbabe]

to k8edidnt:
I am so sorry about your son.. but I understand how that kind of tragedy can bring all things into sharp focus..
Most things we listen to are just more bla bla bla.. those among us dealing with real human tragedy.. have to find a way to persevere and bring the rest of us into the world of reality.
Barak is a dream.. is he a reality?

[Boboday555]

"...nastiest bloggers in the history of politics"

I guess your special Internet doesn't carry the vile Fox-News' blogs like our Internet does.
Trust me, you're lucky!

[Yasmine]

ARIANNA is actually being JUST.
If you were not so blinded by your support of HILLARY..............you might see better too

[obalaji]

Oh, and another thing. The SNL skit failed to mention Russert's badgering of Obama to denounce Farrakhan. This is a staple of the allegedly liberal MSM, to have prominent blacks denounce the Nation of Islam leader or whoever black else has declared his or her hatred of all things American. Earlier, Russert had sort of asked Obama to denounce an anti-America comment by entertainer Harry Belafonte. Hillary's hubby played a surrogate black, because so many blacks were running to him, when he, although no one asked him to, denounced Sista Souljah. Russert has had several prominent rightwingers on his show and he has never insisted that they denounce support of people like Ann Coulter, who in fact introduced Romney that evening she called Edwards a faggot. He now has the oportunity to interrogate McCain because religious lunatic Hagee supports him. Let's see if that happens. Hillary's attacks on Obama smacks of racism. Here's a consitutional expert she's calling, with the help of SNL, stupid. Hillary even attacks what she calls his strong point, his ability to speak, or to communicate period, to say there is nothing underneath. It plays to the so-called mental inferiority of blacks. Did she say the same of another good communicator, Reagan? And isn't it strange that her attacks against Obama contain more passion than against any rightwinger, including Bush? Hillary says she could speak well too if she wanted to, but that's the point. She can't. I won't begrduge her ability to cite details but she is very uninspiring. I'm not saying people should automatically drift to the inspiring person, but she is very uninspiring. Her attacks often smack of envy, or of that belated rage attending the revealing of a truth that discounts everything she and her peeps had benefitted from undeservedly.

[Arawak]

That skit was awful. She could have have easily "done good" had she made true fun of herslf.

Fake Hillary: "How's the campaign going?"

Real Hillary: "I've lost 11 straight, but who cares? I kicked Monica's ass last night in Brooklyn. It's all gravy."

[jsinclair]

Yes, Russert badgered Obama (while not treating McCain's Hagee problem the same way). Dobbs went ballistic in negatively characterizing white Obama supporters for an hour last Monday. And CNN has their most right-wing reporter assigned to Obama (complete with negative spin) while McCain and Clinton get neutral or positive coverage.

The Clintons understood Rove all too well. Just think, "The press has a liberal bias" and substitute "The press has a pro-Obama bias" and you can see what they're up to.

Rove playbook: intimidate the press so they're afraid to criticize you and overdo the attack on your opponent to show how "fair" they really are. Works every time.

[useyourbrain]

Hillary, Bill = racist? Are you kidding. Obama and MSM spin to cause trouble. To call them racist is like calling Lieberman a Democrat. It just ain't so. So drop it. Unless you want to talk about the inherent racism of BO's campaign and intimidating blacks not to be "uncle tom's"n and vote for HRC.
Or is it racist for BO to call himself a "black man". He could easily call himself a "white man" since he is both. Why won't he call himself mixed race? Because that smacks of something lesser or not black enough?

[Manx]

I have a well developed sense of humor and I appreciate good satire but SNL became politically irrelevant and has been on the skids for some time now. If SNL can't succeed while we have a buffoon as president and the worst vice-president, attorney-generals, and secretary of state in history, then it is a lost cause.

[longislandlol]

O.K.-- We've gotten crude-- we had to explain "I did not have sex with that woman" to our teens - close to a decade ago-- now a decade later we have to explain to our grandkids "bitches are the new black?"
Is it any wonder that sex, drugs, et al, are on the rise in our country? My generation is sick of all the splainin we've had to do to two generations--

[Necron99]

Those two things are the most critical things you've had to explain to kids in two decades, and now you're tired of it? & clearly, all this "filth" is coming from democrats?

Oh my.

[jsinclair]

Could a Clinton supporter explain for me why calling Hillary a bitch is okay with Hillary, a supposed feminist (and role model)?

If Obama had been on SNL instead for that skit, the Clinton campaign would be up in arms, trying to get him to "reject" demeaning language toward women.

[democraticjack]

Two weeks ago these people were defending the word "pimp".

[lachgirl]

Actually, I'm not so sure sex and drugs are on the rise in our country. We have the lowest abortion rates since Roe v. Wade, drug and cigarrette use is going down, divorce rates are also on the decline.

Just because our generation has co-opted the word "bitch" to signify an outspoken, powerful woman does not indicate a general trend of decline.

[PrdAmerican]

What planet are you living on?? Abortion rates more than doubled under Bush from where they were with Clinton.

Where are you getting your facts from...Fox???

[obalaji]

Well, SNL likes John McCain, and the cast, including Tina Fey, fawned all over Rudy after 9-11. Look, SNL is a racist outfit, not the progressive program many have claimed it to be. All of its black performers are encouraged to engage in some form of buffoonery, from Garret Morris to Eddie Murphy to this Keenan fellow. You can find them in dresses a lot too. Hillary, along with hubby Bill and their surrogates, has supplied just about every form of racist tactic against Obama. (If she wins the Democratic presidential nomination, I don't see many blacks voting for her. I know I won't. As Stokey Carmichael said in the 60s, "The price of being the black man's [and I'll add black woman's] friend has gone up.") I have no evidence to inform me that Tina Fey isn't racist either. To her, a black man has it easier than a powerful white woman in this country. Yeah, right. But this is why I'm glad Obama is running. All the racists, not just the obvious ones like Buchannon and O'Reilly and Cunningham, will be coming out the woodworks for this show. We've, as that song so famously noted, only just begun, peeps. Hold on to your hats.

[useyourbrain]

you have been drinking the kool-aid. Bill and HRC are not racists. Check out BO and his supporters.
BO is a walking race card and he takes advantage of it all the time. The media is afraid to attack him.
When HRC mentioned the "slum lords" he associates with (Rezko) the MSM cried "racism". The Slum Lord moniker has been used toward Jews in Big Cities for decades but no longer has any power -- it just describes a landlord who does not main their property. You didn't hear any MSM or Jews screaming that HRC was bigoted. She isn't and to say that is to ignore a lifetime of work both she and Bill have done. Do a little research and stop thinking BO walks on water. He has feet of clay and you will see it if he gets the nod and god forbid he wins the election, which I doubt because the real racists are not Bill and HRC, it's a good part of the American public who won't say it out loud but will at the ballot box.

[ChaucerDaisy]

Wee bit of trivia: SNL and the Clintons share an important date in common. SNL premiered "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night" on October 11, 1975. Hillary and Bill Clinton married on October 11, 1975. So they've shared every anniversary of their beginning as a TV show ~ and as a married couple ~ in common. Let the laughter continue!

[moana]

LOL at this post. I missed you Arianna on Left, Right and Center yesterday, so this post made up for it.

[icemama]

To all Texas Democrats:

Remember, in order to validate your vote for either Hillary or Obama, you must return to your voting precinct before the polls close, by 6:30, sign in for the Precinct Convention, and caucus for your candidate, to complete the process of delegate distribution.

Make every effort to attend. You owe it to your candidate.

P.S. Campaign headquarters for both Obama and Hillary are having meetings this afternoon to inform the public on the process of caucusing. Call your local campaign office for more info.

[useyourbrain]

When will the DNC make all of the primaries primaries? These caucuses are bullshit and non-democratic and represent a small number of people. Compare to the 1.5 million Dems who voted in FL that are not having their vote count because the FL Repugs pulled some legislative bullshit saying if you want paper ballots, fine. But your election is moved up knowing the DNC would have a fit. I doubt if there were 150,000 that voted in Iowa. Bill Clinton got 2% there and became President.
HRC got 15 delegates and BO got 16. Huge "win". The media should be looking at the numbers and they are still close. If they count FL and MI, which they should, she will have more than BO. If they don't count FL and MI, they will lose those states (which have not gone Dem since Bill Clinton I think and maybe it was MI that did). These are red states that BO will not win no matter how many screaming fans he has.