The Glade 4.0

By JAMES TARANTO
If you don't think "Saturday Night Live" is funny anymore, try watching CNN. Those guys are hilarious. Yesterday on Wolf Blitzer's "Situation Room," the network "fact checked" an SNL skit. No joke! The transcript is here, video is here. "How much truth is behind all the laughs?" Blitzer intoned as he teased the upcoming segment. "Stand by for our reality check."

The skit, which you can view here, features one of the "SNL" guys imitating President Obama. "When you look at my record, it's very clear what I have done so far. And that is nothing," he says. "Almost one year and nothing to show for it. You don't believe me? You think I'm making it up? Take a look at this checklist." He then rehearses a series of campaign promises--closing Guantanamo, improving Afghanistan, taking over the health-care system and so on--and declares all of them undone.

CNN interviews Bill Adair of the St. Petersburg Times's PolitiFact, one of those supposedly nonpartisan fact-checking outfits, which actually published a "study" of the "SNL" skit earlier yesterday. Adair says:

I think "SNL" tended to kind of gloss over what is a--a fair amount of progress by this administration, about sending two additional brigades to Afghanistan. We rated that [as] a promise kept. On Iraq, "Saturday Night Live" said not done and, of course, that's true, they're not done. But they hadn't promised to be done by now.Reporter Kareen Wynter adds: "As for health care, Adair says 'SNL' also got it wrong, since that legislation is still stalled in Congress." Which means it has been done? Well, whatever. "But Adair says the sketch did get some things right, like Guantanamo Bay. PolitiFact says the president has fallen short on that promise."

Podcast
James Taranto on CNN and "SNL."
"Fact checking" a comedy sketch is a bizarre exercise in itself. PolitiFact does not appear to have done the same for past "SNL" sketches spoofing Republican politicians like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin. (In fact, CNN reports that Adair, in the network's words, "says the sketch won't resonate with the audience as much as" Tina Fey's Palin send-up.)

It's as if CNN and the St. Petersburg Times are trying to reinforce the impression that they are in the tank for Obama. Even Democratic operative Paul Begala, who appears on a panel after the "fact check," seems embarrassed by the exercise: "Come on. It's comedy. . . . I thought it was amusing that we actually went to people to fact-check a comedy sketch. It's comedy. It's supposed to be silly and funny."

There's another way to look at it, though: If only we'd had CNN and PolitiFact back in the 1970s, we would have known that Gerald Ford wasn't really as clumsy as Chevy Chase's portrayal of him, that Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin weren't really two wild and crazy guys from Czechoslovakia, and that Jane Curtin is not an ignorant slut.

I honestly feel Obama has been making a good attempt at meeting his goals. However, I feel he's lost control of what those goals are, and has failed to keep them clearly defined. Peoples perception of what he "promised" is inflating as time goes on, which is undermining his credibility. I don't feel any administration has been faced with this level of accountability being thrown at them so early. Everything he does, says, or writes makes it's way out to the public.

I honestly feel Obama has been making a good attempt at meeting his goals. However, I feel he's lost control of what those goals are, and has failed to keep them clearly defined. Peoples perception of what he "promised" is inflating as time goes on, which is undermining his credibility. I don't feel any administration has been faced with this level of accountability being thrown at them so early. Everything he does, says, or writes makes it's way out to the public.

In nine months time, he has managed to implement policies that seem to have averted a total financial dissaster (at least for the moment, we will see if it holds).

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

He's doing about as well as I expected he would do. In nine months time, he has managed to implement policies that seem to have averted a total financial dissaster (at least for the moment, we will see if it holds). He has got farther on health care reform than any president before him, he's done a solid job on national security without resorting to torture to get it done, and it's possible that we might see a bit of movement on gay rights and climate change in the near or midling future.

I am not entirely pleased with the direction some of his policies have gone, but I didn't expect to be. I would have liked to have seen him come out swinging on the public option. I think that's probably my biggest disappointment thus far.

Arathain - The republican party is completely obstructionist. Every bill that hits the floor requires 60 votes, because they filibuster everything as a matter of course.

Arathain - The republican party is completely obstructionist. Every bill that hits the floor requires 60 votes, because they filibuster everything as a matter of course. So while some might expect big things, I see that he still has big challenges in the form of a minority party that still feels entitled to majority control.

How handy, then, that they have 60 Democrats in the Senate.

The republicans can't talk to someone who isn't listening. The Dems don't care what the Republicans think. They just have to make sure they can pull the moderate democrates on board. Thats the thing Obama is having problems with. His policies are too liberal for the moderate democrats.

Khross - I think there are signs that the economy is on the way to recovery, yes. I also think we aren't there yet. Jobs are lagging behind, but jobs *always* lag behind in a recession.

In less than a year, Obama has done more to undo the damage that Bush did than I ever could have expected. There's still a great deal to do, but if he maintains his pace, I think we might see a great deal of good come out of his first term, and hopefully a second term.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Well, I don't see why the democrats should care what republicans think. They are going to oppose them en masse no matter the policy, because those are the battle lines they have drawn up.

George W. Bush was a failure as a president. Barack Obama is a bloody nightmare.

There's still a great deal to do, but IF he maintains his pace, I think we MIGHT see a great deal of good come out of his first term, and hopefully a second term.