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.
