The Morning After: Palin vs. Palin

What will Saturday Night Live do when the election is over? For that matter, what will they do if Sarah Palin and that other guy lose? Saturday, SNL kept the Alaskan gravy train running with yet another skit, this one clocking in at a plus-sized eleven minutes and change. As a comedy bit, this didn’t seem as inspired as Fey’s first two takes on Palin—though maybe it’s just the familiarity at this point—but conceivably it could be even more important. In this media age debates are sometimes won or lost days after they’re held, after something in the media serves to crystallize its perception; SNL, for instance, did as much as anyone to ensure that Al Gore’s sighs (and maybe the phrase “lockbox”) would be the only thing we remembered from his first debate with Bush. Did Tina Fey do the same for “maverick,” or was there, as the pundits say, no knockout blow?