In the past I’ve called the McCain campaign’s selection of Gov. Sarah Palin as the senator’s running mate the most cynical move I’ve ever seen. I’m only 26, and I’ve only been paying attention to US politics for the last 5 years, so I don’t think that’s overstating it. She has the fundie Christian bonafides, certainly (just say “I loves me some God and hates me some science!” and you’re there), but so do others in the party who have more experience. She was appointed to the ticket because of Hilary Clinton, and anyone saying otherwise is engaging in willful ignorance (or just plain ignorance). Because the news media has a hard time explaining anything with any force, the Republicans have managed to co-opt the last year or so of Hilary Clinton’s struggle to actually get elected, with Palin. She who was plucked out of obscurity and given her position of power by an old white man. This symbol is supposed to be a positive for feminism how?

So the point of bringing this up? Two things: First, SNL has actually created a somewhat funny sketch. It took a couple of minutes to suppress the wild hatred I have for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, but it actually gets funny. And it addresses what I talked about above. Honestly if they did comedy with even this faint level of insight more often, I wouldn’t get so annoyed when news outlets gushingly fawn over SNL’s “importance” in political comedy.

Second, the NY Times has done a piece on Palin’s time in Alaskan office:

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.

Talk about change you can believe in.