"Saturday Night Live" began its program last evening with Fred Armisen once again addressing the nation as President Obama.

After being literally held hostage by Republicans for three days - "bound, gagged, blindfolded in a dark room somewhere outside Washington" - Obama, in the grips of weird symptoms associated with the Stockholm Syndrome, became a tax cut-loving, Sarah Palin-admiring, Rush Limbaugh-quoting conservative who's no longer sure he was born in America (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):

Vulgarian Kathy Griffin on Friday called Bristol Palin fat during her opening monologue of the USO's Divas Salute to the Troops.

"She's the only contestant in the history of ["Dancing with the Stars"] to actually gain weight," said Griffin. "She's like the white Precious" (video follows courtesy MTV.com with commentary):

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann showed viewers just how on top of things he is Monday attacking Bristol Palin for something that was announced more than a year and a half ago.

During his newly renovated "Worst Person in the World" segment, the "Countdown" host gave Palin top honors for being The Candie's Foundation's abstinence spokesperson (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Those Tea Partiers – is there anything in this nation they can’t spoil? They’ve already gummed up the president’s agenda with their rallies and signs and voting. Now, they’re trying to ruin “Dancing with the Stars!”

So says the left and many in the media agree. Now that newly resurgent conservatives have handed them a crushing mid-term defeat, liberals are seeing nefarious Tea Party plots everywhere – including in silly entertainment shows. And they’re taking plenty of shots at Bristol and, predictably, her mother.

Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, 20, has done remarkably well in this season’s “Dancing with the Stars” competition on ABC. As she’s advanced from week to week, buoyed by viewer voting, entertainment reporters and liberals have become increasingly frustrated.

Video below the fold.

It's fair game to discuss whether Bristol Palin arrived at the finals of ABC's Dancing with the Stars on talent alone (instead of being judged with telephone voting). But ABC and The Washington Post were Palin-obsessed enough to actually pay for a poll question on the matter. The headline in Tuesday's paper was "Poll numbers suggest Bristol doesn't have 'Dancing' legs to stand on."  (On the website's homepage, the headline was "Poll: Palin a finalist because of mother.") TV writer Lisa de Moraes announced the public verdict:

Fifty-four percent of Americans think Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol is one of the finalists on "Dancing With the Stars" because of large-scale voting by viewers who support her mother, according to a poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News.

Just 14 percent of respondents think Bristol is still in the competition because she is one of this season's best dancers on the show.