Post-Palin: UT Students Weigh In on “Tina Fey Effect”

Tina Fey (center) says she's retiring Palin to foucs on "30 Rock" which stars, from left, Tracy Morgan, Alec Baldwin, Fey, Jane Krakowski and Jack McBrayer. The show took home Emmys this year for best comedy, writing (Fey) and acting (Fey and Baldwin). (NBC)

By Elizabeth Bercovci, Journalism I

Sarah Palin’s future in politics is unclear, but Tina Fey is fairly clear about her future impersonating the former running mate.

Fey told Oprah Winfrey that she is retiring her Palin impression, leaving fans and SNL executives thinking, “Oh, gosh darn.” Thanks to Fey’s Palin, SNL’s ratings have soared more than 70 percent, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Fey is the writer and star of “30 Rock,” which she based on her stint at SNL. She retired there in 2006 to create “30 Rock.” Fey returned this fall as Palin.

“I am really happy I did it. For me it was this wonderful chance to go kind of go home again and be with all of my friends on SNL,” she recently told CBS.

“It’s just the strangest thing that ever happened to have been a part of the excitement of the election. SNL was a really big part of that.”

The New York Times called Fey’s impersonation “deliciously dead-on,” leaving some to wonder about its political ramifications.

“Does she influence me? Yeah,” junior Mike Zeolla said before the election. “If I was a Republican, her impersonations of Sarah Palin would turn me away from the Republican party all together.”

Others were less influenced and simply find her humorous.

“I think she’s funny in her imitations of Sarah Palin,” junior Celeste Judge said. “I don’t think that they’re all necessarily accurate, so I can’t take what she says or imitates seriously. But, at the same time, I don’t pay much attention because I’m a huge Obama fan myself.”

Judge’s attitude seemed to be the norm for most students.

“I find it to be humorous,” junior David Leess said. “If I wanted to take Sarah Palin seriously, I could… Just because I laugh at her, (and Fey’s impersonation) doesn’t mean I can’t take her seriously. I laugh at McCain all the time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t take him seriously.”

One undecided voter said she was swayed.

“After watching Tina Fey’s impersonations, it made me lean towards Obama,” senior Jen Cintron said. “She makes her look like a complete idiot.”

Chris De Cosimo, a junior, was influenced by Palin’s joke about the difference between a pit-bull and a hockey mom: lipstick.

”[That] was it for me,” he said. “That makes her look … like she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

Others seemed to be somewhat offended by Fey’s impersonations of Palin.

“I think Tina Fey’s impressions are completely bogus, and she needs to perform more comedic material,” junior Shelly Dibble said. “Too much about Palin for me.”

Palin says if more skits call for Palin, that regular SNL actress Kristin Wiig can take over.

“I think Wiig would do a really good job,” she told Entertainment Weekly.

The Real Issue For Candidates: Do these shoes look okay?

By Kadie Hayward, Journalism II

Just hours after the nation elected the first black president, news outlets were flooded with recounts of the night. Many articles that covered President-Elect Barack Obama’s address from Chicago were more focused on the new First Lady’s dress than the inspiring words of her husband. Dozens of online discussion boards have had thousands of hits.

Yahoo! News ran a story on Michelle Obama’s red and black Narciso Rodriguez dress. It had 21,000 comments just twelve hours after being published. An article discussing Obama’s address received less than 14,000 comments in the same amount of time.

Fashion in politics has been a hot topic since the news broke that the GOP budgeted $150,000 for Sarah Palin’s campaign wardrobe.

Many University of Tampa students agree that fashion is a real issue in politics.

“Fashion is an inevitable part of politics. Politics are about image and therefore, about the way you present yourself,” explained junior, Greta Van Collie. “I think it is unfortunate that voters become so distracted by what someone is wearing that they forget what a candidate said.”

Jill Biden, foreground, and Michelle Obama, rear, come out on stage after President-elect Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech after it was announced he has won the presidential election at his Election Night Rally in Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois, November 4, 2008. (Chuck Kennedy/MCT)

Van Collie mentioned the most recent Vice Presidential debate as a perfect case. “Media coverage talked more about her perfectly quaffed hair and sharp suit than what she said and how she responded to important questions.”

Even students who do not follow fashion believe it has a regrettable part in the political playground.

“I do not follow fashion at all, so I don’t particularly notice what candidates are wearing but I know other people do.” Junior Laura Olds continued, “I wish it wasn’t the case but people rely a lot on how our leaders look.”

Junior Sarah Strickland agreed, “It is important that our leaders look put together and that they present themselves well. I do not necessarily think that a put together image and a fashionable one are the same thing, however.”

Strickland also noted that there is rarely any discussion on male politician’s style. “I definitely think there is a double standard when it comes to fashion in the public eye. Male politicians can be overweight, balding, and in a plain suit and that is fine. They can also spend thousands of dollars on a suit, and be perfectly manicured and there is no mention.”

“Hillary Clinton is criticized for being frumpy and too matronly. Sarah Palin is the other end of that spectrum and is criticized for being too concerned with her appearance. There is no common ground for women.”

This focus on fashion and image can certainly overshadow bigger issues for our country’s leaders. In a poll done by CBS, 76 percent of the survey participants believed it was just as important for a candidate to look presentable and to speak well than it is to have experience. Fifty-six percent believed they had been influenced by a candidate’s fashion choice.

Now, as the country gives props to Michelle Obama’s fashion choices, let’s hope they pay the same attention to her husband’s plans for America.

Fact Check Failed: More Whoppers of 2008

The final five weeks of this looooong campaign produced some fresh outlandish charges, as well as some old ones reprised.

By Factcheck.org

The last five weeks have brought so many ads we feel like we’re drinking from a fire hose – and we’ll bet you’re pretty saturated, too.

Since our first “Whoppers of 2008″ piece, we’ve seen some of the same themes repeated. McCain’s campaign doesn’t tire of distorting Obama’s tax plan, it seems, and in the process has whipped up at least 15 minutes of fame for sudden star Joe the Plumber. Obama continues trying to pull seniors into his camp by making deceptive claims about what McCain would do to Social Security, and he has new distortions about his opponent’s plans for Medicare.

And there are some fresh deceptions gobbling up airtime, including false depictions of McCain’s position on stem cell research, Obama’s connections to former Weatherman Bill Ayers and the community group ACORN, and both candidates’ health care plans. Then there’s a new parlor game, pin-the-blame-on-the-candidate for the financial crisis that has gripped the country.

For more on these and other mendacities and misrepresentations we’ve found recently, please read on to our Analysis section, where you’ll find summaries of many of our

articles and links to the full-blown versions.

And if you haven’t voted already, do so by the end of Tuesday. After all, why do you think we’ve been doing all this work?

Monroe Dowling, 10, watches as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama speaks at the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, Sunday, November 2, 2008. (Eric Albrecht/Columbus Dispatch/MCT)

Analysis

Remember, these are just the recent clunkers. For a collection of those from earlier in the campaign, see our first installment, “The Whoppers of 2008.”

McCain: The “Welfare” Man Cometh

Since our last roundup of whoppers, Joe the Plumber has joined the cast, and Barack Obama’s “spread the wealth” comment to him has been made infamous by John McCain. In fact, in Obama’s exchange with Joe, he was simply talking about making the nation’s progressive tax system a bit more progressive by cutting taxes for most while raising them on top earners. McCain himself has defended progressive taxation in the past.

Also, McCain began denigrating Obama’s proposed refundable tax credits as “welfare.” But refundable tax credits are a key feature of McCain’s own health care plan, except that he calls them “reform.” In an early version of Obama’s plan, only a tiny portion of his tax credits would have gone to anyone who didn’t work, and advisers quickly announced that they had added a work requirement even for that one (a tax credit to benefit homeowners who don’t itemize deductions).

Two outside groups joined McCain in the tax attack. But one of them, Let Freedom Ring, pulled its ad off the air rather than defend its false assertion that Obama had voted to raise taxes on “100% of America.” An ad by another independent group, RightChange.com, says that Obama’s plan would hike taxes on “many small businesses” to 62 percent. That’s a ridiculously inflated figure that includes the state tax rate paid by people making more than $1 million annually in California.

Meanwhile, McCain has continued to broadcast, in speeches and ads, his most harped-upon deception of the campaign, telling voters that Obama favored higher taxes on “families making over $42,000 a year.” As we’ve said ad nauseam, Obama’s plan would raise taxes only on individuals making more than $200,000 a year, or couples or families making more than $250,000.

Obama’s “Welfare” October 17

Right Change Is Wrong  October 24

Spread the Tax Hooey!  October 26

Obama: Senior Scare

In two TV ads and in speeches, Team Obama made false claims aimed at frightening seniors into fleeing from McCain’s camp, to wit: McCain proposes to cut $882 billion out of Medicare benefits and eligibility to help pay for his health care plan. This turkey draws in part from a newspaper story saying McCain would pay for the health plan with “major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid.” The story said nothing about cutting benefits or eligibility, though, nor does it say the McCain camp has given a target number. One ad says benefits would be cut 22 percent, and there would be “higher premiums and co-pays.”

These claims have a de minimis relationship with reality, if that. The Obama camp borrowed calculations from a Democratic think tank that had piled detailed assumptions and calculations on top of a flat misrepresentation of what McCain’s economic adviser had said in the newspaper article. He was quoted as saying Medicare benefits would not be reduced, and reductions would come through “efficiencies.”

Obama’s False Medicare Claim  October 21