Why Is Saturday Night Live Shilling for Hillary Clinton's Campaign?

Posted by Adam McKay, Huffington Post at 9:12 PM on March 8, 2008.

Let's face it, the Republicans love Hillary Clinton. They quietly in their heart of hearts pine for her to win the Democratic nomination. The Republican Governor of Florida is rolling out the red carpet for a second primary which will favor Clinton. Pat Buchanan can't be quiet about how much he respects Hillary. Even Ann Coulter pal and SNL sketch writer Jim Downey has written several sketches portraying Hillary as picked on by the press. Downey is one of the all time great sketch writers but I know he's no Hillary fan. Don't get me wrong, I like Hillary and still think Bill Clinton is one of our great presidents. But it's weird. Weird like....well, Pat Buchanan praising Hillary Clinton.

Now it's possible the corporate right wants her to win in order to keep afloat the huge economy of Hillary hate bumper stickers that if my numbers are correct generates over 55 billion dollars in revenue for the south.* They also could be supporting her because after over seven years of the absolute incompetence that is the Bush administration they finally get that corporate welfare and tax breaks for millionaires are not good for the economy. Or maybe they think she's Hilary Swank.

But more likely, in fact, screw it, for sure, they are backing her the way I root for Nenad Krstic to cover Kevin Garnett so the Big Ticket can put up twenty and twenty on him.

And yes, it's sad that someone as capable as Hillary would be considered fodder for McCain, a "don't change horses in mid-stream, even when it takes that horse twelve years to cross that stream" kind of guy. Senator McCain just got the thumbs up from Bush. Isn't an endorsement from W like a job reference from that astronaut chick who lost it and wore diapers? Well, she is an astronaut and Bush is president.

The biggest upside of this whole thing is that SNL has clearly still got clout even in this day of a thousand channels and a billion internet sites. They influenced a primary for F's sake. That's big. Now I wrote for the show in the nineties and it's an incredible place that's actually as exciting as it seems like it would be. I've seen SNL have incredible political influence in a good way (Dennis Miller's line about Reagan: "It scares me when the finger nearest the button has a string tied around it.") and a bad way (Portraying Bush and Gore as equally buffoonish in their debates. Bush was an embarrassment and the sketch made people think they were in the same ballpark.). It's had its left wing writers like Al Franken and it's right-wing writers like Jim Downey, who also wrote those Bush-Gore debates sketches. Franken is now running for the Senate and Downey is spinning primaries.

There's no doubt our nation's comedic TV political coverage between SNL, the Daily Show and the Colbert Report is far better than the straight news. And though that's a pithy and tired observation, it's also stone cold, for better or for worse, true.

So put your bumper stickers on your cars Repubs: "Hillary in '08, Up Until November, and then McCain!" If you drive an Excursion it'll fit.

*My numbers were not correct.

Editor's Note: The video attached to this blog aired this Saturday on SNL. It ends with Hillary (played by the incredibly funny and gifted Amy Poehler) giving the number for the DNC and urging voters to call and say they've changed their minds about Barack Obama...

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Tagged as: bush, clinton, obama, television, mccain, gore, election00, saturday night live, downey

Adam McKay wrote and directed Anchorman and Talladega Nights. Adam wrote for Saturday Night Live in the nineties and was head writer for three years.