Watched Saturday Night Live’s Presidential special last night. Pretty funny – and showed how stuff hasn’t changed in 30 years of SNL and American politics:
– Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford vs. Dan Ackroyd’s Jimmy Carter; Carter’s accused of being… a flip-flopper (sound familiar?) and Ford’s accused of being… not very bright (a sentiment that never changes, I guess – do we always tend to think of that with our presidents?). Well, at least two guys (the real Ford and Carter) are now seen warmly and are honored in their old age and are applauded in hindsight (Ford for preserving dignity in the presidency and Carter for trying to make the world better for peace).
– Oh, and there was a previous guy named Bush, too. That Dana Carvey has the George H.W. Bush thing down cold. And, Kevin Nealon as Sam Donaldson – he, in imitation of the real Donaldson, looked like a waxed Vulcan (i.e., the Star Trek aliens who aim to logical but often get real perturbed).
Plenty of laughs, but quibble – SNL edited the clips too much, missing out some priceless stuff (like the skit where Dana Carvey’s Ross Perot left Phil Hartman’s Admiral Stockdale on the side of a road in a forest after the vice presidential debates of 1992, and SNL cut the scene where Stockdale, an honored Vietnam veteran – even if a little addled-brain in his old age, vigorously ran alongside Perot’s car… – such a great scene – why cut it out? Well, if you’re all that concerned about time constraints – SNL only had a one hour time slot).
Anyway, it’s my day off (local holiday, to get us civil service folks to vote and lobby others to vote; civil service has it’s benefits). I’ll vote before lunch, to see if I can avoid the lines of senior citizens. (no, the lines are probably there, so maybe it’ll be heartening to see, as opposed to how it was when I voted on primary day back in the spring, when no one was literally there).
I may blog later, if my nerves aren’t so shot by watching/listening to loads of news (which is why I’m listening to pop music right now – 1010 WINS news radio was just driving me nuts with replaying the words of this nut mom-and-son pair in NJ whose big concern is terrorism (re: Bush) vs. the dad-and-son pair in NJ who voted because of economy concerns (re: Kerry) – thus their votes canceled each other out (no, I don’t think they were in the same family – I just thought it was weird that the reporter somehow found these people to demonstrate contrast – as if Kerry wasn’t as worried about terrorism and Bush wasn’t as worried about the economy. Whatever – the media is what it is).