Sarah Palin

"Sarah Palin"

Tina Fey's sensational portrayal of Sarah Palin is unlike any other political impersonation ever, for one simple reason: it may very well end up defining a major political figure before that figure has defined herself.

Consider SNL's previously most celebrated impersonations. Four others leap to mind: Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford. Dana Carvey as George H.W. Bush. Will Ferrell as George W. Bush. Darrell Hammond as Al Gore.

As much as the NBC-industrial complex wants us to believe those performances affected the elections in which they appeared, I doubt it. The candidates portrayed were already firmly established in the public consciousness when they were parodied. The portrayal that stirred the most talk on the cable yakfests was Hammond's Gore. It was a revelation, highlighting Gore's condescension and his "Me, teacher! Me, teacher!" front-row ass-kissiness. Even so, there was no confusing the man and his parodist. Gore had already been Vice President for eight years.

With Tina Fey and Sarah Palin, it's different. I keep hearing people say that they're confusing Palin and Fey; that when they watched the actual debate, they kept forgetting they weren't watching Tina Fey. This isn't just a testimony to Fey's brilliant performance. It's also testimony to the McCain campaign's flawed rollout of Palin: she really was too sheltered. There's insatiable curiosity about the lady, but we're only getting dribs and drabs. TIna Fey is filling in the rest.

There are of course evident differences between the actual Sarah Palin and Tina's "Sarah Palin".

The actual Sarah Palin, while clearly unprepared for a national campaign, is consumed with ambition and may yet pull it off. She's folksy and flirtatious on the outside, steely on the inside. "Sarah Palin," on the other hand, is more daffy. She wants to rule the world, yes, but she's more of a bubblehead, easily distracted by shiny objects. She's sort of delightful.

The real Sarah Palin plows through her sentences like a Panzer through Poland, butchering innocent sentences, leaving syntactical carnage in her wake. "Sarah Palin" blithely skips from word to word with the blind faith that she'll make it to the other side of the rhetorical rapids without slipping.

The real Sarah Palin believes most of what she says. Or at least you can tell what she believes between the lines. (Her code is pretty obvious.) Meanwhile "Sarah Palin" seems more ... misguided. Somebody told her what to think and, you betcha, she's stickin' with it ... unless someone tells her to change her mind.

Perhaps the best way to understand the difference between Sarah and "Sarah" is through the lens of E!'s The Girls Next Door. The real Sarah Palin is Holly -- eyes fixed on the prize ... the prize being 82 year old Hef. (Holly, in fact, is from Alaska!) Fey's "Sarah Palin" is Bridget from The Girls Next Door. Fun is a major priority. (For those of you wondering, Kendra is a working class Democrat.)

And by official, I mean, that's what I've decided. It's hard to unseat Seinfeld because it was so funny, so true for so long. You don't take the king down so easily. But outside of Seinfeld, I am now putting 30 Rock as the best sitcom I have ever seen.

Unfortunately, I don't get to watch as much television as I used to because I am so damn busy (writing blogs like this, I guess; woe is me). But I love television and have loved a lot of sitcoms in my time. So, this is no small thing. 30 Rock is that good.

I only get to watch a couple of hours of TV a week and sometimes I'll watch the same 30 Rock twice. It's that good. In the last episode, I laughed out loud for about five minutes until I started having chest pains.

It goes beyond saying that I totally have a crush on Tina Fey now (and I did her an injustice the other day even comparing her sex appeal to Paula Abdul, you can watch that injustice here). And Alec Baldwin is our finest actor, Really, he is. No one does comedy and drama like Alec Baldwin. I honestly believe he is the most underrated actor in the country (and hence the world, I don't think some Bollywood dude is going to overtake him).

That's it, I'm officially putting Alec Baldwin above John Malkovich as the #1 ranked actor. Malkovich has to act more than once a decade to reclaim the title.

If you're not watching 30 Rock, you're not spending your time right. Straighten your life out, get your priorities straight and get yourself a piece of the Rock!

Watch The Young Turks Here in the Meanwhile

Look, an attack on Iran continues to remain a terrifying possibility, thanks to the diligent reporting of Seymour Hersh. As many as five U.S. generals and admirals appear willing to resign in protest if the president makes the mistake of ordering air strikes. Newsweek's Michael Hirsch is reporting Gen. David Petraeus' plan for Iraq could keep American troops on the ground for five, maybe ten years.

So naturally, I'm outraged at NBC for continually lying to me at 9:57pm every Thursday. They do it every week. And I believe them every time. And then I grow furious. Every time.

Here's what happens. At 9:30pm every Thursday, I watch "30 Rock," the deliciously delightful sitcom – created by one of the sexist women in America, Tina Fey – taking us behind the scenes of a "Saturday Night Live"-like show on NBC. The fictional NBC, whose parent company is an international wig conglomerate, is headed by Jack Donaghy, played spectacularly by Alec Baldwin, who at some point became the funniest actor in Hollywood. For 27 minutes (more like 21 in TiVo time) I am full of unbridled joy.

Then comes the lie. It is a bold lie. It is a lie repeated every week, despite overwhelming evidence that it is indeed a complete untruth. It is Bushian in the comprehensive nature of its deceit.

"Stay tuned for more "30 Rock," says the promo, promising one more scene, one final moment of funny before ceding the airwaves to "ER," which, for reasons I'm not yet able to explain, I still watch. I wait, anxious for a moment of hilarity from Fey, Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski or any member of the talented supporting case. I wait (rather, I fast-forward through the commercials). And then, there it is – the production slate with a picture, I presume, of Tina Fey's baby. The show is over. We are taken directly to the 3,487th consecutive "very special" episode of "ER" that "you have to see to believe."

HEY, NBC – THAT IS NOT "MORE 30 ROCK. WHY ARE YOU LYING TO ME?"