As it turned out, the Presidential Bash was a Monday night clip show with pre-taped new material, rendering the name Saturday Night Live almost completely useless. They picked the best clips from the latest presidential season, and the choices were pretty spot-on. The new skits were all right, with a few strong moments here and there. It felt a lot like a special prepped for DVD release though, like The Daily Show's Election 2004 compilation, which I'm still not sure why I bought. Well, apart from the obvious eye candy. Come on.

I'm sure you all watch SNL as obsessively as I do and already know each old skits by heart, so let's touch upon some of the new material.

Cold Open (John McCain): Is this a record?! Has there been another senator that has done so many SNL skits? Don't get me wrong, I'm totally cool with McCain appearing on the show, as he often does a good job, but I was disappointed that nobody from the Obama camp made an appearance at any point in the season. Maybe this was NBC's way of balancing that purchased airtime from Obama. Maybe.



Monologue (Hillary Clinton): Super-pregnant Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton! It's been a while since we've seen her Hillary and it hit me harder than ever that her impression is horrible. Again, it's a generic "rich white lady" voice, with no sense of the real Hill-Rod's slightly nasal/grating tones. If they made Amy Poehler recite, like, Ulysses or something in that voice, you wouldn't be able to tell who she was supposed to be, as opposed to, say, Darrell Hammond reading as Bill Clinton or John McCain, who are both spot-on.



Senator Joe Biden: Jason Sudeikis still isn't quite hitting it as Biden, but he's getting there.



John Edwards: I kind of wish there was more John Edwards coverage, just so we could see more of Will Forte's portrayal of him.



Sarah Palin: I was very glad to see Palin say some jokes instead of just sitting there and taking them to show she's a good sport. Unfortunately, the audience was terribly unresponsive. I thought she had a few smart lines and captured the previously mentioned "high school bitchy" attitude in her delivery, but the crowd was extra-tough.



Chris Matthews and Barack Obama: This was probably my favorite new piece. They should have turned this into a full-length skit on one of the proper episodes of SNL. "Sometimes when I watch you give your stump speech, I pleasure myself."



Barack Obama and John McCain: Ahh, some oldies are always fun.