SNL (With The Sound Off)

For me, this was the visual highlight of last night’s sketch.

“Tina Palin’s” literal embrace of “Amy Clinton” neatly captured real Sarah’s self-serving tendency to exploit and appropriate Hillary’s stature and political circumstances.  If the physical response mostly played on Clinton’s dashed hopes and ambitions, the response also captures how much Clinton is constrained from taking Palin on.

The skit was also interesting just for surfacing Clinton (albeit comedically) at all.  Coming out of the DNC, The Times had this, then this (the latter article awkwardly trying to force-fit Hillary into the role of Palin-antidote).  But otherwise, Hillary — as well as other Dems such as Sebelius,  MaCaskill and Napolitano — have been virtually invisible. (And then, after offering a prominent and powerful presence at the DNC, what happened to Michelle? Personally, I thought it was a lost opportunity — perhaps too rigidly adhering to a one-sided promise — that Michelle wasn’t alongside Obama at Ground Zero on Thursday.)

So, what’s up?  Have the Democrats backed off in terms of putting their most prominent women out front?

It looks like Clinton and Sebelius are hitting Ohio starting today.  In a campaign in which the soft news and entertainment media — typically the lowest common denominator — is helping driving the narrative, I could actually see how something as political banal as this SNL sketch could actually give Hillary, and the Democratic women, something of a boost.

If you missed it, you can catch the video here.

(screen grab: NBC/SNL)