Tuesday Night Live with Barack and Hillary

Now I understand why Sen. Clinton’s campaign faded so much over the past few months. It was the writer’s strike. See, the campaign relied heavily on “Saturday Night Live” for their attack ads and well Sen Clinton, a good union person now that she’s in Ohio, is NOT a strikebreaker. Nor does she support them. Nor sit on their corporate boards. Anyway, as this excerpt from a piece by the Post’s Dana Milbrook shows, it’s clear; now that SNL is back, HRC will be back. Quoting spokesdude Phil Singer:

He went on to chide the journalists for their “woefully inadequate” coverage of Obama, “a point that has been certainly backed up by the ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit that opened the show this past Saturday evening, which I would refer you all to.”

(said skit may be viewed here at AlterNet)

Then we hear Sen. Clinton referencing the SAME SKIT during last night’s debate as if Singer returned from the sit down with the reporters and said, “Oh. my. gawd. I totally ZINGED them with that SNL skit line it was AWESOME. Senator, you GOTTA use that one!”

One can only shake their head in disbelief. What, Bill wouldn’t let you have Carville?

It isn’t totally the team’s fault, nor the candidate’s either. Obama has positioned himself pretty well, making the campaign about intangibles, about himself, and so it’s very hard to attack without squeezing in close to an ad hominem. Make fun of his message of hope and you come off like a big ol’ sourpuss. Then again, it’s a function of the two candidates being very similar on most all issues. The voters can’t help but to make personality the deciding factor, especially when we’re this deep into the primary.

And last night, personality won again. Obama didn’t win by much. Sen. Clinton nearly wore us down with her wonky way of going over the minutiae of policy. She played to her strength, however that didn’t overcome the weaknesses. She’s one of those people who is funny (ha-ha) off the cuff but can’t tell a joke. So the SNL reference, one that most people didn’t get because they don’t watch the show (it had to be explained to me even), fell flat. Zingers are not her style. Too late for them to realize that now.

I’ve been wondering when it would happen. It was only a matter of time before someone dropped the F-bomb during this campaign. Farrakhan. I’m sure Timmy didn’t have any malicious intent by asking Obama about his feelings on Louis, yet it’s still tiresome. High profile African-Americans have to pass this bizarre test where they are asked to either denounce or reject(STRONGLY!) controversial “leaders” like Farrakhan. Russert may as well have asked, “Just how Black are you, Senator? Do you like White people? Jews?”

But, on that score, Obama has played it well. Tell me, how often have you seen Jesse Jackson Sr or Sharpton looming about? They’re supporters, they’re high profile. Some one, quietly, asked them to stay out of camera range for awhile until the nomination is locked. I’m guessing Jesse Jr is responsible. It’s a necessary evil.

In more Muslim news, someone, likely a Clinton team member says Mike Drudge, is shopping around a photo of Obama in “Muslim” clothing. That should be enough right there. His middle name is Hussein, Farrakhan likes him and he wears funny clothes. Dude MUST be a terrorist. Well, should he win, he’s going to see a lot more of this. Wonder how Fox is going to handle their coverage, and how many times will they mention Obama’s full name?