A Brian DePalma film waiting to happen.

“’Saturday Night Live’ treats politics less as a contest of ideas than as a cast of characters.”

Also: "Politics" treats politics less as a contest of ideas than as a cast of characters. Which is why it’s there's not much of a difference.

When Sarah Palin was nominated, everyone said she looked like Tina Fey, because they both wore stylish glasses and had similarly-colored hair. Then, Tina Fey went back to her old place and played Sarah Palin back, but actually she played Tina Fey-playing-Sarah Palin, quite often, mindfuck as it might be, getting the biggest laughs of SNL's dismal season by reciting verbatim exactly what Palin herself said. (I wouldn't doubt it if when 30 Rock premieres, Tina-Fey-as-Liz Lemon-playing-Tina-Fey-during-her-stint-on-SNL references Tina Fey-playing-Sarah Palin-playing-Tina Fey/rinse/repeat). Then, when SNL started airing 22 unnecessary minutes of Weekend Update on Thursdays, the ridiculous farce of a debate would be quickly recast into a ridiculous farce of a ridiculous farce of a debate a few days later, the only difference being that the second one was supposed to make you laugh (the second-best thing other than Feylin: Sudekis-as-Biden depantsing Scranton).

You know how it's hard to remember how Bush I talked, but it's really easy to remember how Dana Carvey-doing-Bush talked? It's like that, but it's already happened--I think of Darrell Hammond's John McCain now when I watch John McCain. But when Palin finished the cycle and came onto SNL, the last twist was made, and the whole thing turned sour. Palin has zero charisma, obviously (and Fey is, of course, much much hotter), and SNL seemed to know that, and SNL (which sucks now and has for a couple years) just let her stand there at first, and raise the roof while Amy Poehler serenaded her during Update. It felt like a roast, which is not what it should have felt like, because that implies respect from the roasters to the roastee, which I can't believe is the case. They could have easily done the "rap" without her there. Yet, no, the result wasn't funny or creative, and the intent was purely statistical. SNL and Palin used each other for a ratings boost.

Movies aren’t a reprieve either: W is out before its subject even leaves office, and the weird thing is that it doesn't even feel that weird, you know? It’s exceedingly easy to tell stories about politicians right now, especially those who surround themselves with a cast of characters like the current (and, for many, the former). It felt like a new documentary about Cheney or Rove or Bush was on TV or in a theater every few months for a while there, and the cavalcade of news-and-quasi-news outlets have devoted, in terms of sheer bulk, more inches to Bush II than every other president combined. It feels like Bush has been around forever because he’s a totally shitty asshole, but it also feels like Bush has been around forever because, as it will be for Obama, thousands and thousands of narratives have been already crafted about him and his cronies while the firings are still warm.

The news isn’t a reprieve either: I agree with Keith Olbermann’s politics, and value his contribution to mainstream political discourse, but I really wish MSNBC could have found someone different to play the part. I thought I could see Gwen Ifill taking notes for the last chapter of her book during the VP debate. And now that The Daily Show has made meta-commentary second-nature, the big news orgs are forced to constantly break the fourth wall and self-critique during their own coverage, calling attention to their institutionalized lameness before we get a chance to.

Normal living isn’t a reprieve either, as David Sedaris observes: “I look at (undecided voters) and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?” Hear hear. Now that we’ve reached the stage of the campaign where all relevant information on either candidate is readily available and the candidates are reduced to making shit up for the networks like emcees filling time when the teleprompter breaks, there is no other excuse to not know who you’re voting for. Unless, as above suggested, you just want people to pay attention to you. Saying you’re undecided right now means that you’re essentially unpaid labor for the television and print news agencies, who use you as numbers to make daily narratives out of. And for a lot of people, I’m assuming that wanting to help tell the story--to make it go on as long as possible, no matter how forced the action gets--feels natural, even comfortable.