Saturday Night Live parodies of Sarah Palin Clinton," aired during the thirty-fourth season premiere of "SNL" on September 13, 2008. The sketch starred Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as Palin and Clinton, respectively. Fey, the series' former head writer and repertory player, made her third appearance on the series since officially leaving "SNL" in 2006 to work on "30 Rock", a series which she created. The sketch was written by Poehler, Fey, and head writer and "Weekend Update" anchor Seth Meyers. Poehler and Fey are featured in a fictional speech playing New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, respectively. The pair discuss the
2008 United States presidential election in Alaska perform better in 2008 than Democratic nominee John Kerry did in 2004. The presence of popular Governor Sarah Palin on the ticket as the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee appeared to help. The McCain-Palin ticket received just a slightly smaller percentage of Alaskan votes than did Bush-Cheney in 2004 despite the nation's swinging Democrat by nearly 5% (48.3% to 52.9%). Polls from April until August indeed showed John McCain with a slim lead, with one poll taken in early August showing Obama five points ahead. However, from when Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's running mate on August 29, polls