Saturday Night Live parodies of Sarah Palin to joke that "[she] was just trying to give Tina Fey more material." She also joked that it was to provide "job security for "SNL" characters." Palin later remarked that she should appear on "SNL" to spoof a series of American Express commercials which featured Tina Fey. Due to the popularity of the sketch and Fey's impression of Palin, Fey reprised her role during the September 27, 2008 episode. That sketch featured Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric (Amy Poehler), and parodied an interview which took place between Palin and Couric which aired days before the sketch's broadcast. In the
Sarah Palin conservative commentators met Palin in the summer of 2007. Some of them, such as Bill Kristol, later urged McCain to pick Palin as his vice presidential running mate, arguing that her presence on the ticket would provide a boost in enthusiasm among the Religious Right wing of the Republican party, while her status as an unknown on the national scene would also be a positive factor. On August 24, 2008, during a general strategy meeting, Steve Schmidt, and a few other senior advisers to the McCain campaign, discussed potential vice presidential picks with the consensus settling around Palin. The following