Copious Notes

President Barack Obama speaks during the Organizing for America National Health Care Forum, an event touted as reconnecting him with grassroots supporters, in Washington Thursday. AP Photo by Alex Brandon.

Yet another evening of ­kvetching about the health care debate was winding to a close Tuesday night on The Rachel Maddow Show when guest Bill Maher made a great point about President Barack Obama’s inability to get his message across.

“Where are all Obama’s people to help him with this, by the way?” Maher asked. “You know, I mean, he is Michael Jordan on a very, very, very bad team. Where are all the people who were so enthused during the campaign? You know, that was the fun part, the election.

“Now comes the hard part. You know, where’s Oprah? Where are all of the people who were out there on the campaign trail? We need them now. This is the actual hard work of government.”

It’s a valid point.

Could it be the Obama ­administration just hasn’t stayed in touch?

Remember the summer of 2008? That was the campaign summer, when candidate Obama was the king of all media, ­particularly new media.

One of his flashiest tricks, though, fizzled: the attempt to alert supporters and anyone else who was interested of his choice for running mate via text message, before traditional media broke the news.

It was surprising to get word through — egads! — this newspaper in my driveway. The traditional media broke the story right before it was time to put the papers to bed and about three hours before the text announcing the choice of Joe Biden.

But it soon became clear what that ploy was all about: mobilizing supporters.

The Obama campaign had succeeded in getting scores of text and e-mail addresses, and they were going to use them.

During the Democratic National Convention, there were messages to make sure to tune in for speeches by Obama’s wife Michelle; Biden; and the man ­himself speaking in a football stadium. As the campaign went into the fall, there were more text and e-mail appeals to watch, to campaign and, of course, for money. In the final weeks, there were even geographically ­targeted ­appeals to get to our ­neighboring swing states, Indiana and Ohio, to help on the ground.

If you had signed up, whenever your text chime went off, you almost ­expected it to be the Obama ­campaign, and it was a safe bet there was something in the in-box, too.

When the campaign was over and Obama won, we were told that the e-mail and text addresses would be kept to help relay information and mobilize people to help support the administration’s initiatives.

But Barack and Joe don’t seem to write anymore.

The campaign that was built on a mastery of new media has taken a ­traditional ­approach to getting the message out. ­

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Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe. Photo courtesy of MSNBC.

The political addiction built during the 2008 presidential campaign wasn’t that hard to break after all.

Once the votes were counted, it became easier to miss those appointments with Chris Matthews, Campbell Brown and the other cable news and commentary shows that saw their ratings soar during the months leading up to the election.
In the new year, with Jack Bauer back to save the nation, American Idol gearing up with some local rooting interest, 30 Rock as the focus of Tina Fey’s work, and plain old lives to lead, the compulsion to tune in to Rachel Maddow or Hannity-now-minus-Colmes isn’t there.

But I’ve still gotta have my Morning Joe.

We’re talking about MSNBC’s 6-to-9 a.m. chat show featuring Joe Scarborough, a former Republican representative from Florida; Mika Brzezinski, a veteran broadcaster and daughter of former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, and a rotating band of regular guests led by Boston writer Mike Barnicle, conservative icon Pat Buchanan, and former Democratic Tennessee representative Harold Ford, Jr.

There is an obvious reason I still keep this appointment: Many mornings, I am on a treadmill shortly after 7 a.m., and TV is the easiest way for me to get my mind off of walking in place for nearly an hour. But there have been mornings when the prospect of watching Joe has kept me from skipping the walk, and there have been occasions I’ve extended my time because I was interested in an upcoming guest. Yes, Morning Joe helped me burn calories.

Then again, I don’t have to have that excuse at all.

Mornings I haven’t hit the treadmill, I’ve tuned in — made a point of it.

The show has bucked this political junkie’s trend for several reasons.

First, it’s a bipartisan show. In the evening, the trend has been to race to an ideological extreme: Bill O’Reilly on the right on Fox News while Keith Olbermann is on the left at MSNBC at 8 p.m. every night. After a while, these shows get really predictable, and you sort of have to be part of the choir to stay interested.

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Then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama at a May rally in Louisville. Copyrighted Herald-Leader photo by David Perry.

As the audience at November’s Kentucky District round of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions waited to hear the results of the competition, musicologist Tedrin Blair Lindsay presented a tribute to Gail Robinson, playing some recordings of the late Metropolitan Opera star and University of Kentucky voice professor.

One of the tapes he selected was of Robinson singing in the White House in the early 1970s for an apparently appreciative President Richard M. Nixon.

You used to hear of these performances a lot. Such-and-such artist is playing the White House, a high honor for the performer to be requested by the President for a command performance.

If these are still going on, we don’t hear as much about them, but that’s one of the things that makes this new administration interesting.

Certainly, Barack Obama will face challenges unlike any President in most of our lifetimes has encountered upon being sworn into office. All eyes are upon him to see how he handles our cratering economy and a variety of international crises.

But some are also going to be interested in seeing how the arts will figure into President Obama’s administration.

The President-elect gave a big clue in his post-election interview with Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press.

Speaking about opening the White House up to events such as lectures by scientists, he added he was, “Thinking about the diversity of our culture and, and inviting jazz musicians and classical musicians and poetry readings in the White House so that, once again, we appreciate this incredible tapestry that’s America.”

He went on to say it is, “going to be incredibly important, particularly because we’re going through hard times. And, historically, what has always brought us through hard times is that national character, that sense of optimism, that willingness to look forward, that, that sense that better days are ahead. I think that our art and our culture, our science, you know, that’s the essence of what makes America special, and, and we want to project that as much as possible in the White House.”

He’s talking about using the bully pulpit of the Presidency to affirm the arts as important, not despite, but because of the pressing issues that face our country.

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For the day-after-New Year’s Weekender, Scott the editor asked me and the other Herald-Leader critics to weigh in on what we are looking forward to in 2009. Here’s my list of local arts events.

Gil Shaham performs Valentines Day at the Singletary Center.

Violin virtuosos: Early in the year, we will receive visits from two of the hottest ­violinists on the planet: Joshua Bell in recital with pianist Jeremy Denk on Jan. 26 at the Norton Center for the Arts in Danville; and Gil Shaham performing with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, on Feb. 14 at the Singletary Center for the Arts. Either one of the guys coming to town would be a big deal. To get both violin ­virtuosos less than a month from each other is huge.

Silas House’s new play: In 2005, the Kentucky author made his debut as a playwright with The Hurting Part, a play with the familiarity of characters close to our homes, sketched with great drama and wonderful language. In April, Actors Guild of Lexington is scheduled to present House’s second stage effort, and it will be interesting to see whether a new Kentucky playwright is indeed emerging.

TBA’s first season: In April, we will learn who is going to take the baton for the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra and lead the orchestra into the future. After 37 years of George Zack on the podium and two years of a search for a music director, it will be fascinating to see how this person settles in, what he or she will program, and what sort of public face he or she will bring to the Philharmonic.

River of Time: In 1999, University of Kentucky music composition professor Joseph Baber wrote An American Requiem, a powerful choral and orchestral work that seemed a bit like putting Ken Burns’ The Civil War into a classical composition. River of Time, Baber’s opera set to be premiered by UK Opera Theatre in the fall, will mine the same period, telling the tale of Abraham Lincoln’s childhood in Kentucky and the impact of his presidency.

The economy: Do I look ahead to this with anticipation or dread? It all depends on whether the country’s financial status continues to deteriorate or starts to turn around. Either way, it will dictate what arts groups do in 2009-10, and a severe financial downturn could irrevocably alter the arts landscape in Central Kentucky and across the nation.

Here are a few other things I’m looking forward to on the national stage:

New movies from Kentucky’s A-listers: Johnny Depp and George Clooney are notably absent from the awards race this year, but 2009 sees both with fresh, intriguing projects. Depp’s highest profile film has him playing gangster John Dilinger in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, due in July. Clooney is starring in Men Who Stare at Goats, the feature film directoral debut for his Good Night, and Good Luck co-writer Grant Heslov, a film about a U.S. military unit that uses the paranormal against its enemies. Depp and Clooney have other projects coming as well.

Other movies: We’re back with that old saw that Hollywood can’t make anything but sequels these days, and there are plenty this year, including a new Transformers and Harry Potter. A few reach farther into the past, and I am intrigued to see how Star Trek (sans Shatner) and Terminator (sans the Governator) fare with new visions.

Alan Gilbert taking over the New York Philharmonic: Like here in Lexington, New York’s leading band will get a new conductor starting in the fall. Unlike the recent line of venerable old conductors that have conducted the NY Phil, Gilbert promises to bring a new profile to what should be, but often is not, one of America’s leading orchestras. BTW, the NY Phil comes to Danville with outgoing conductor Lorin Maazel March 5.

Sean Watkins and Jon Foreman are Fiction Family.

Jon Foreman’s new project: The Switchfoot frontman’s solo EP’s were some of last year’s best music. He starts 2009 in collaboration with Nickle Creek’s Sean Watkins for Fiction Family. Speaking of Christian rock, I am also looking forward to new music — finally! — from Rebecca St. James.

The Obama administration: We haven’t heard a Presidential candidate or President-elect talk about the arts nearly as much as Barack Obama. His campaign included an arts platform, and both his campaign and transition team featured arts policy advisors, so it will be very interesting to see what kind of action this translates into. We’re talking about this more this weekend at le blog and in Sunday’s Herald-Leader Arts+Life section.

I said in the live blog of last night’s election coverage that watching the CNN holograms made me think, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi . . . ” Well, Slate had a little fun with that idea, putting Princess Leia’s voice in Jessica Yellen’s mouth. Click above to play.

President-elect Barack Obama, left, his wife Michelle Obama, right, and two daughters, Sasha and Malia, center right, celebrate at the election night rally in Chicago, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. AP Photo/Jae C. Hong.

12:20 a.m.: The tone of of this victory speech is so much different than any other Presidential victory I can recall. The images out of Chicago convey joy, but a joy marked with the solemnity of history. No getting down to Don’t Stop or country tunes. As CNN let the end of the speech play without commentary, there was a sensation of watching something greater than the beginning of another peaceful transfer of power.

11:58: President-elect Obama and his family are now on stage and all of the network affiliates are back to national coverage. On TV, the event looks worthy of its place in American history, the backdrop of American flags appropriate to the event. Simple and tasteful.

It is interesting to note that after all the apprehension about the polling, fears of the Bradley effect and other anomalies may throw the projections off, the election came off pretty much as predicted.

11:39: WTVQ and WLEX have gone back to local news. Strange, if the networks are still running.

11:10: On CNN, David Gergen observed how lovely it would be if Hawaii, the state of Obama’s youth and the state where his grandmother who raised him just died, put him over the top. But in the end, it was Virginia — in something of a crazy last-minute call by networks — the Capitol of the Confederacy that set up California to put Obama over the top and gave the United States its first African American President.

And this is where television really did its thing.

Network cameras swung to locations such as traditionally black Spellman College, where cheering, tear-stained faces filled the screen. Several networks caught the image of Rev. Jesse Jackson, crying openly. African-American pundits reflected on the Civil Rights movement not too distant passed and seemed thunderstuck by the moment they were enjoying.

11: All outlets, including Comedy Central, project Obama the winner. There’s your 11 o’clock news.

10:56: Only in this era could I get the news that Virginia has gone for Obama from Comedy Central. As a native and longtime resident of the Old Dominion, I am floored.

10:49: Looking at Anderson Cooper talking to the Will.i.am hologram, all I can think is, “Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.”

10:05: Ducking out for a bit to fashion all this into a column for tomorrow’s paper. Colbert and Stewart have come on Comedy Central now, though I find it hard to tear myself away from the results, because I would bet someone will have a Presidential projection within the hour.

9:43: John King just went through the map, showing how even if McCain picked up the plausible remaining states, he still couldn’t get to 270.

There, as there is every year, a lot of advanced publicity about new innovations, the holograms, the ice-rink map and such, but nothing has topped that map. They’ve advanced the technology with touch screens and the like, and those make the map more active. But that red-blue map is still the essential element to understanding what is happening , and no bell or whistle tops it. The Election Plaza stuff is probably cool if you’re in New York right now, at Rockefeller Center. Most of us aren’t.

Karl Rove is talking about an Obama Presidency as a fait accompli.

9:39: Dana Bash just gave an interesting report from the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix where the McCain Party is underway, with Hollerin’ Hank on the stage. She said that a while ago, when McCain was rolling up red states, they were showing the news in the hall. But now that things are becoming bleak, the news is off. Everyone knows what’s up, Bash said, thanks to Blackberries, etc., but they’ve stopped talking about it from the stage.

Meanwhile, on NBC, Brian Williams is talking to Tavis Smiley, seemingly subtely shifting into a mode of discussing the meaning of an Obama victory.

9:32: NBC has now called McConnell also. A little while ago, WLEX’s Ferrell Wellman all but called it, pointing out Western Kentucky was going for the incumbent Senator big time. That pretty much said it was over for challenger Bruce Lunsford.

CNN appeared to get cold feet a bit on Ohio, but finally called it, as has NBC. Tom Brokaw is on the Peacock calling Ohio and New Mexico backbreakers for McCain.

9:22: CNN is now projecting McConnell wins back his Senate seat. Bigger news is probably CBS calling Ohio for Obama.

Hey, we are getting an actual live shot out of Phoenix, and it took Hank Williams Jr. to get it. So far, most of the celebration coverage has come out of Grant Park in Chicago, where the Obama celebration is looking like one of those concerts in Central Park.

CNN is promising a big projection in moments, bet it piles on the Ohio train for Obama.

9:11: Suggestion for Paul Begala. Avoid using phrases like “Peace out, cub scout.” The CNN “Best political team in television,” is sounding gloomy for McCain, including their Republican pundit.

OK, I had David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, on the TV to the left of me on FOX, I turned to my left, and he’s on with Katie Couric on CBS.

8:48: MSNBC’s Chuck Todd had a sober assessment of the current state of the race, pointing out that so far, Obama has not flipped a red state from 2004 blue and that until that happens, “the people in Grant Park had better cool their heels,” he said, referring to the big Obama celebration in Chicago. Thus far, out of the craziness of trying to keep up with the race through a bunch of networks, it was the clearest assessment of the evening so far. Florida, Virginia and Indiana are still up in the air.

It’s a few minutes until 9, and we’re nowhere close to knowing who a winner is.

8:32: All election season, we’ve been following websites very closely, but we have to say they’re being a little bit slow on the uptake election night. While some networks had the electoral totals in the hundreds, some websites were still sitting on Kentucky and Vermont calls (yes, I hit ctrl refresh). I have to wonder if this is just being slow, caution or maybe the websites simply don’t have the resources the networks have.

Wolf Blitzer on CNN: “We are in no position to call,” the Kentucky U.S. Senate Race. This is the race FOX called for McConnell a while ago.

8:29: Some of the local candidates are starting to appear. WTVQ just had Chuck Ellinger’s concession statement.

8:22: We’re into a pretty topsy-turvy time here. ABC and NBC are calling Pennsylvania for Obama. FOX News’ Michael Barrone says the net is hesitant to give Obama the big prize yet, and is explaining the conclusion is based on exit polls compared to real results. One note to FOX, they’re still running McCain wins Kentucky in their Alert bar. That’s very old news guys.

8:16: FOX News has called McConnell the winner in Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race.

8:03: Huge bummer. We have this exciting Senate race going. WKYT is covering it like no one else on its CW outlet, and at 8 p.m., BOOM!, CW programming. Guess we’ll have to head over to KET and see what they’re doing.

7:59: Karl Rove is a Mephistopheles of the Republican party to Democrats, but when he is talking pure political strategy like he just was on FOX, it is very enlightening. Asked by Chris Wallace whether Florida is a Moby Dick to Democrats because of 2000, he said its a Moby Dick to anyone because it’s 27 electoral votes and hard for either party to nail down. If you were running a campaign for either party, you’d want the man’s insight.

Top of the hour, a raft of states were called, taking the electoral count to 103-34 Obama.

7:51: CBS had an Obama-centric block a few minutes ago, throwing from Chicago to Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and a live shot at Florida State University that highlighted the Democrat’s outreach to young voters.  The latter segment did make the good point that Obama’s campaign excelled at getting younger voters where they go in places like Facebook and their cell phones — anyone who signed up for that veep text message can testify that they’ve been getting a steady stream of Obama texts since.

At the CW, Mark Kennedy’s liveshot from the McConnell campaign’s base testified to the state of the race. He said he couldn’t talk to anyone because they were glued to the TV.

7:29: John King is on CNN doing a really good job of breaking down states into counties and talking about what’s actually going on in the early running. When they swing to their political panel, Bill Bennett affirms that with small percentages of the vote in in states such as Florida, the county by county breakdowns are important. Speaking of county maps, WKYT’s CW outlet is showing an interesting map of the Senate race where we can see pockets on the Southeast side of the state that Lunsford is picking up.

A dominant tone: The Obama camp should not pop the corks yet. It’s looking tighter than we’ve thought.

7:26: If keeping up with the TV coverage is making your head swim a bit, Politico and Real Clear Politics both have good tote boards up on their front pages that are pretty easy to follow.

7:06: Joe Scarborough on the Obama-McCain tussle in Indiana: “If I’m a Republican, and I don’t have Indiana by 7:05, I’m starting to sweat.”

7:01: First national projections from CNN: McCain in Kentucky and Obama in Vemont. We are still in the spotlight though, because Lunsford and McConnell are close.

6:53 p.m. WKYT is calling state races: Kathy Stein for State Senate over Chuck Ellinger II, and Kelly Flood for Stein’s old seat. Gotta say, if you are interested in the local races, and that’s really the only game right now, WKYT is using that second station to give you something no one else is providing locally.

6:45p.m. Right now, Kentucky, and Indiana are about the only things the national media has to look at. With the 69-to-30 percent edge McCain is holding over Obama here, I’m surprised someone hasn’t already called the Bluegrass State for McCain. Obama is holding a sliver of a lead in Indiana right now. The MSNBC graphics are not show percentage reporting, while CNN and FOX are, so it’s a little bit easier to put in perspective.

6:30 p.m. If you want local coverage right now, WKYT is carrying on local news on its CW channel, Insight Channel 5 in Fayette Co. KYT’s not secret weapon is Bill Bryant, one of the top political reporters in local TV news, who is on explaining how Lunsford’s current lead in Fayette County compares to Dan Mongiardo’s performance against incumbent Jim Bunning in 2006.

6:16 p.m. The local news stations have started running crawls. Gotta say, WLEX has the most-detailed, folding in percentages, actual votes and percentage reporting. WKYT has pictures of the candidates, but not as much info. I’d tell you what TVQ has, but they’ve dropped it for the weather. It will be nice tomorrow, let’s see election returns.

6:04 p.m. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer has just declared our polls closed, and they are starting to analyze exit poll data. FOX has jumped into the exit polls most so far, saying Obama seems to be doing the best in Ohio and McCain is holding on to the majority of white men, partuicularly in Virginia.

5:30 p.m. For the past day, the 24-hour news nets, political websites and the guy who makes your vanilla non-fat latte have been chattering about how to watch the election results (hint: Virginia will be a very big indicator of how its going).

But there will also be some interesting things to watch in terms of how the networks and cable outlets will cover it. They include:

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right, talks on the phone with a voter at the UAW Local 550 Union Hall in Indianapolis, Ind., Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. AP Photo/Jae C. Hong.

First draft: The proverbial they say that the news is the first draft of history. Tonight, one way or another, we will see history. It could be that a country that enslaved black people less that 150 years ago has elected its first African-American President. Or, it could be that a nation that less than 100 years ago did not allow women to vote has elected a woman vice-president. With so many voices weighing in, it will be interesting to see who distinguishes themselves tonight. I kind of liked the Jon Stewart framed the possibility of an Obama win on The Daily Show last night, while interviewing Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin talks to the media after voting in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. AP Photo/Anchorage Daily News, Bill Roth.

“It would be the first ’show’ not ‘tell’ moment,” Stewart said. People are always told, “You can be what you want to be. Anybody can be president. This is the first time that would be demonstrable.”

Someone like Brokaw will come up with something more elegant than that, but Stewart offered a nice start.

When do you write that draft?: For a while, the networks have tried to respect the West Coast by not calling the election before polls close on the West Coast. Frankly, in the last two elections, the actual news has cooperated with races too close to call on election night. But, according the New York Times and several other sources, with the possibility of a landslide, some networks are saying they may project a victor as soon as it becomes apparent, which could happen as soon as results start rolling in from East Coast states such as Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida.

How do they react to the draft: There’s been buzz in the liberal blogosphere that Obama supporters will tune in FOX News to see how Obashers such as Sean Hannity react if the Senator from Illinois wins. Likewise, MSNBC could be an interesting watch if McCain pulls the upset, and Keith Olbermann realizes all his special comments were for naught. Rachel Maddow has also been raising the prospect of election shenanigans by Republicans, so it may be interesting to see how she reacts to a McCain win.

First gadgets: At MSNBC, you have Chuck Todd in a Greek-columned virtual set that puts the stage for Obama’s convention speech to shame. CNN will reportedly have holograms of correspondents in the studio (Princess Leia style?). So it’ll be interesting to see what gadgets hit and what are one-hit wonders.

Eyesuponus: Shout out to a Versailles band in that title. Anyway, in the battle for control of the senate, the race between Mitch McConnell and Bruce Lunsford puts us in the national spotlight. I’m interested to see if the race is called by local or national media first.

Those are things to watch for. Let’s watch.

Out of the four principals in this year’s presidental election, only one, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, has hosted Saturday Night Live – his outing was in 2002 — and he reminded us why last night with a cameo appearance in the opening sketch and the Weekend Update segment.

The opener lampooned his own campaign and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s 30-minute multinetwork commercial Wednesday night. McCain, with Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin appeared hawking commemorative campaign merchandise on QVC such as “McCain Fine Gold,” shown by Cindy McCain, doing a perfect Vanna White. The joke was QVC was all the McCain campaign could afford.

“I’m a true maverick,” McCain said, “a Republican without money.”

Later, McCain appeared on Weekend Update to discuss potential campaign strategies for the final days, including the “double maverick” and “sad grandpa.” If he was serious about going with the double maverick, it could be an interesting couple of days.

Regardless of how Tuesday turns out, McCain had the best personal performance of a candidate on the show this campaign.

Another plus for Repubs was host Ben Affleck doing a pretty savage Keith Olbermann sketch.

Now I did spend a post running down SNL’s non-election content the other day, so I have to give props to the faux “Giraffes” documentary, supposedly made by a high school class. That put me on the floor.

Note: I will be live-blogging coverage of the election returns starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday. So surf on by while you’re watching Charlie, Katie, Brian, Wolf, Sean, Keith and the others, and join the conversation.

Most of us are done with the 2008 presidential campaign.

Even hard-core political junkies have seen enough attack ads, followed the polls so closely we need Dramamine, watched way too many hours of cable news and done personal electoral maps ad ­nauseam.

It is time for the United States to make a decision, which, ­mercifully, it will do Tuesday.

But it might not be so merciful for Saturday Night Live.

To be sure, SNL has benefitted ­enormously from Campaign ’08.

It’s been a little more than a year since ­Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, then seeking the party’s nomination, appeared in a ­Halloween party skit featuring Amy ­Poehler as Sen. Hillary Clinton. That was a spark that ignited a fire under the show during the Democratic primary, starting with the February debate skit portraying a fawning media asking Obama whether he was comfortable while giving primary opponent Clinton a hard time.

By the time the real ­Clinton showed up to meet her doppelgänger on the show, SNL was must-see political TV.

That status was amped up the day Republican ­presidential nominee Sen. John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, and bloggers, Twitterers and the like immediately noted her resemblance to SNL’s former star and head writer Tina Fey.

At press time, Fey had ­returned to SNL four times to play Palin, ­establishing the latest brilliant SNL ­political impersonation, ranking up there with Dana Carvey’s George H.W. Bush, Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford and Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush. (We actually got to see Fey and Ferrell meet as Palin and Bush on the Oct. 23 edition of SNL Weekend Update Thursday — video, above.) (Tonight, McCain, who once hosted SNL, will appear on the show again.)

“In an era glutted with ­satire, … there is still a ­special power to an old-­fashioned SNL ­impersonation,” James Poniewozik wrote in Time magazine. “It’s shamanistic, it’s like owning a voodoo doll: Capture your target’s soul, and you can make her dance just by ­waving your arms.”

It’s been a treat that has drawn SNL’s biggest ­audiences in decades, even though you can watch all the skits on demand online.

But what happens after Tuesday, when there’s no more campaign to satirize?

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Presidential Masks; Caroline Copley; ink on newsprint; 2004.

When we moved in March, few things that hung on my 11-year-old daughter’s wall in our old house made it to the walls of her room in our new residence. But one treasured artwork did: Her treatment of the Weekender 2004 Presidential candidate masks.

Nothing affirmed my little girl’s sense of whimsy as much as her take on Republican candidate President George W. Bush and Democractic candidate Sen. John Kerry. She basically kind of did a cool Mrs. Doubtfire thing with them, giving them hair pins, earrings, dresses and sunglasses. Hey, there’s a reason the kids like the Doubtfire thing.

I don’t know if she’ll have the same kid of fun with Chris Ware’s masks of Sen. Obama and Gov. Palin in today’s Weekender, or Sen. McCain and Sen. Biden online. She is four years older and may be too cool to play with it this time. But you sure can have a good time with them. Happy Halloween . . . and Election Day.

In one scene from his 30-minute campaign ad, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama laughed with his daughter Malia while Michelle Obama talked about how the father and daughter read the Harry Potter books together. AP Photo/Obama Campaign.

All of the money didn’t go for buying the commercial time.

For the first time since 1992, a Presidential candidate bought a half-hour of prime time television, and thankfully Barack Obama left the pie charts behind. In ‘92, independent candidate H. Ross Perot famously ventured into prime time with a bunch of flip charts that charmed some with their simplicity but didn’t do much to advance his Presidential hopes.

Obama’s 30-minute spot on FOX, NBC, CBS, BET, MSNBC and other networks was billed as infomercial, but I defy you to find a spot for time shares or fold-up home gyms with these kinds of production values. Clearly, the campaign invested in what it put on the screen.

We’re not here to talk about the policies advanced by Obama’s ad — there are plenty of places that will be doing that. Plen-tee. But Obama was showing his ad in prime time, when there were other options for viewers, including Pushing Daisies on ABC. Could the spot hold an audience?

The TelePrompTer shows the time left on the live portion of Obama's commercial, which showed him speaking at a rally at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla. Copyrighted AP Photo by Alex Brandon.

Turns out, it was a very well-done piece of television with gorgeous photography, easily moving from Obama talking about his proposals in a woody office and with voters to his own biography to families who have been hit hard by the nation’s economic travails, including a couple from Louisville. Mark and Melinda Dowell both worked for the Ford Truck Factory in the Derby City. In the film, we learn that Mark’s hours have been cut in half and Melinda has been laid off.

At the beginning of the spot, Obama said he was going to talk about his plans in specific detail, though pulling in details of families like the Dowells was a key to the ad’s connection with middle class voters it targeted. Seeing a mom driving her kids to school or retiree putting on his Wal-Mart employee name tag sent a message that these are people like you, and they’re supporting Obama.

The biggest missing element was an upbeat moment or two. Obama talked about an energy company and a school that were examples of the type of innovation he wanted to see during an Obama administration, but we never saw those places. It might have helped to balance the pervasive sad tone in the half hour with some visuals of the hope the candidate talked about.

It’ll be interesting to see how many people actually tuned in, if Obama’s commercial draws boffo ratings like the debates, conventions and Saturday Night Live episodes. Of course, the most important reaction will come in the form of votes Tuesday, and if this commercial is seen as having helped Obama win the White House, it may not be 16 years until we see another one.

One plea to the candidates of 2012 and beyond: No pie charts.

UPDATE: The New York Times’ Caucus blog reports the infomercial had solid ratings, better than most entertainment programs at 8 p.m. Wednesday.