McCain on ‘Saturday Night Live’

John McCain did his turn on “Saturday Night Live” last night and he was pretty good.

McCain, who is trailing Democrat Barack Obama in most battleground state polls, also appeared during the show’s “Weekend Update” newscast to announce he would pursue a new campaign strategy in the closing days of the campaign.

“I thought I might try a strategy called the reverse maverick. That’s where I’d do whatever anybody tells me,” McCain said. And if that didn’t work, “I’d go to the double maverick. I’d just go totally berserk and freak everybody out,” the Arizona senator quipped.

Earlier in the show, McCain and Fey, portraying Palin, said they couldn’t afford a half-hour campaign commercial on network television like Democrat Barack Obama aired earlier this week. They said they’d sell campaign products on the QVC shopping channel instead. Among other things, McCain advertised a set of knives to cut through pork in Washington. His wife, Cindy McCain, briefly appeared to advertise “McCain Fine-Gold” jewelry, a play on the campaign finance law McCain authored with Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold. Fey, as Palin, advertised a set of “Joe” dolls commemorating Joe the Plumber, Joe Six Pack and her Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

Between this and the Al Smith dinner, McCain shows a good aptitude for comedy. Perhaps he’s lining up a fallback career in case he doesn’t pull off the upset Tuesday. It’s a shame we didn’t see more of this side of him on the campaign trail and, especially, the debates.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. sam says:

    Hey, don’t count the Republicans out just yet. Between Mac’s turn on SNL and Sarah’s enhancing her foreign policy cred via her phone conversation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Bithead and Co. might yet escape Zoloft.

  2. G.A.Phillips says:

    Sarah’s enhancing her foreign policy cred via her phone conversation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy,

    Sam takes great pride in the ability of yet another liberal bullshit artist and as usual blames the victim for what he thinks is another chance at advancement.

    Man it must suck to be dumb,stupid and liberal.

  3. Rick DeMent says:

    Have to admit … between this and the Al Smith dinner; McCain is a lot funnier then Obama.

  4. Jim Henley says:

    Agreed. He’s got great timing. And on SNL and at the Al Smith dinner, he showed a much pleasanter side of his personality than he did in the debates. I do like the QVC intro better than the Weekend Update segment. The QVC intro is guffawz.

  5. Eric says:

    Sam takes great pride in the ability of yet another liberal bullshit artist and as usual blames the victim for what he thinks is another chance at advancement.

    Man it must suck to be dumb,stupid and liberal.

    Funny, I thought Palin was a bulldog with lipstick–yet when someone gets her goose, G.A. and all his rightwing nutty buddies are the first to whine about how helpless she is. I mean, isn’t the First Amendment supposed to protect people like her from those meanies always trying to criticize her and make fun of her?!

    Suck it up, G.A.

  6. MM says:

    McCain has shown that he’s pretty funny even before SNL and the Al Smith dinner. There’s a reason he was a frequent guest on the Daily Show after all. If he could have shown some of that side on the campaign trail, he may have been able to win over some of the moderates he needed.