Sarah Palin may be hot.
“You are way hotter in person,” actor Alec Baldwin told the Republican nominee for vice president in her debut appearance this weekend on “Saturday Night Live.” “I can’t believe they let her play you.”
“Her” would be Tina Fey, the comedian whose uncannily perfect im-Palin-ations have reignited the late-night comedy program. According to a preliminary estimate released by Nielsen Media Research, Saturday’s show — with the real and fake Palins — drew “SNL” its highest ratings in 14 years.
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But Palin also may be radioactive.
Despite the adoring crowds the Alaska governor has attracted for GOP presidential nominee John McCain, 52 percent of those surveyed by the Pew Research Center earlier this month called her unqualified to serve as president.
It’s all a question of perspective. Palin is, as Dolores Roder, a voter in Florida put it last week: “The greatest thing since Ronald Reagan.” Or Palin is, as actor Baldwin, a political activist in real life, said to her face on “SNL”: “That horrible woman.”
One problem for her could be that late-night comics have helped define this campaign. But credit Palin for having a sense of humor. She opened a mock news conference on “SNL” with the line, “I’m not gonna take any of your questions.”
For a candidate who has fielded relatively few questions from the press, the real problem may be something the fake Palin joked about.
“Y’know,” said Fey, playing Palin on Saturday night, “I don’t worry about the polls. Polls are just a fancy way of systematically predicting what’s gonna happen.”
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Palin played her “SNL” role to perfection. SEC. 3, PAGE 3