SNL's Political Charactures Probably Only Mirrors What The Voting Public Feels

Last night's new Saturday Night Live offered up yet another classic opening segment with keen satire on the hearings in the Senate last week where presidential candidates Senators John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were allowed to ask questions about the Iraq war to General Daid Petraeus. If anything, the charactures of the candidates probably only really mirrored what the voting public feels about the candidates.

It certainly seemed as though Barack Obama came out the least scathed in last night's SNL satire, although there are some signs that his latest controversial comments during a San Francisco fundraiser may be hurting somewhat according to some early analysis over at Rasmussen Reports. However, Rasmussen finds that among Democrats Obama's statements seem to have less impact than they do among Republicans or Independent voters. Likely the SNL satire was written earlier in the week before these comments. But Obama has always proven to have a rubber-band like quality to bounce back and the Pennsylvania primary is still nine days away, allowing more time to recover.

John McCain was largely characterized as simply being a Bush Administration and Iraq War "yes man" type politician, who simply looks for any opportunity to ignore all the problems in Iraq and attempt to declare victory over and over.

But the characterization of Hillary Clinton had to indeed be the most troublesome of the three candidates. She was painted as someone who misrepresents her record when it comes to her short term political advantage. If the public really feels anything like this, then this is indeed very troubling, if not in the remaining primaries, then for certainly for the general election. Clinton is low on cash and without much real hope of really capturing the nomination, and it is only really any missteps by Obama that vClinton can hope to bank on to some extent. But in politics nine days is a near eternity, and Clinton has managed to generate more than her own fair share of political missteps on her account of her Bosnia trip and other matters recently. Overall, the impression of Clinton as a pandering politician, only all too willing to say anything for her short term political advantage seems to be sticking.

In the end, Obama probably can recover and rely on his freshness with voters to still have a better than decent chance to become president, although McCain often leads either Obama or Clinton in most current polls. But SNL probably mirrored the current public perception of the three candidates fairly well and should really give the three campaigns a serious insight into their public images. From the standpoint of political analysis, SNL may well be right on the money compared to some serious pundits. Sometimes it seems like the comics can encapsule more truth in their humor than those who are considered to be more serious.