Reading The Pictures: <em>Palin Misses Her Match</em>

Did Palin and her minders somehow restrict the Governor's role on SNL last night, effectively reducing her to a prop? Did the show merely bring out the fact she's "not ready for prime time?" Or, did the liberal entertainment complex deservedly give it to Palin, just like Letterman gave it to McCain the other night?

Alec Baldwin, who blogs here at Huff Post (and clearly cannot stand Palin) not only reduced SP to a sex object, he barely looked at her even when he was supposed to. And then, Baldwin's line: "Lorne, you can't let Tina go out there with that woman" telegraphed why the show was an unmitigated disaster for Palin.

The reason was, Palin failed to achieve the dramatic justice of confronting Tina Fey's fractured version of herself.

Such an interaction was the only plot option that could have dignified Palin's appearance on the show (in the same way Hillary Clinton's SNL appearance naturally dictated a confrontation with Amy Poehler's version of Hillary). Far from any such meeting taking place, however, Fey not only parodied Palin again, but did so to Palin's face while the Veep candidate stood there watching her on a monitor before a national television audience.

As such, the sequence of the night (if not as cutting as the Moose rap later on) was this one of Tina Fey, having just finished mocking Palin, actually walking right past Sarah without even giving her a glance. More biting still, before exiting the stage Fey throws a look back acknowledging that she got off scot-free.

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Baldwin/Palin clip; Poehler Palin news clip.

(screen grab: nbc.com)