I think the point here has been lost on some audience members blinded by all this talk of partisanship. The real issue is SNL’s ability to provide timely commentary through satirical sketch without making a mockery of their own interests by providing realism in the place of farce. Do we really give a shit if the show is “a tool of the left?” We watch because it’s funny. And, really, doesn’t it stop being funny when it becomes “real?”

it isn’t snl’s job to be a tool of the left. and it isn’t david letterman’s god-given right to have presidential candidates as guests. i would’ve loved to see what letterman’s reaction would’ve been if the exact scenario played out, but with obama cancelling instead of mccain. i suspect all the righteous indignation would have been nonexistent and that letterman would have been happy to do a stupid skit with the deli owner across the street all night.

idiot partisanship is the biggest roadblock to getting anything we need done done, and i think that palin on snl would be a step — a very small, perhaps ultimately insignificant step, but a step — in the right direction. and i suspect i would laugh.