'Saturday Night Live' Gives Real Hillary Clinton an 'Editorial Response'

March 2nd, 2008 11:20 AM

NBC's "Saturday Night Live" responded to criticism over two skits from its February 23 program that gave the appearance the show was supporting Hillary Clinton's campaign for president by giving the junior senator from New York her own "Editorial Response" in the most recent installment.

To make it clear the show isn't in the tank for Barack Obama's opponent, the real Hillary Clinton was allowed to address the nation rather than "SNL" actress Amy Poehler.

That should settle once and for all the questions about which candidate "SNL" is endorsing.

Hillary's editorial response immediately followed the opening sketch which, once again, was a lampoon of a recent debate between Clinton and Obama:

 

To be fair, the sketch made fun of both candidates this time, including Hillary's incessant chatter about health care. And, Poehler did present Clinton as having "a personality so unpleasant" that special interest groups will give into her wishes because "life is too short to deal with this awful woman."

However, much as the opening debate sketch last week, there were continual references to moderators being in the tank for Obama, and the questions lobbed at Hillary were much more difficult than those offered to Barack.

In fact, near the end of the sketch, Darrell Hammond, playing the part of NBC's Tim Russert, mercilessly grilled Clinton about her previous statements concerning NAFTA. When Clinton pointed out that she's getting tougher questions, and that "with me, the tone is more hostile," Hammond and Will Forte (as NBC's Brian Williams) pretended to play violins.

As this was immediately followed by the real Hillary's editorial response, it seems a metaphysical certitude "SNL" made it perfectly clear to viewers that during this campaign, it will remain 100 percent impartial...right!