Saturday Night Live parodies of Sarah Palin a physical resemblance between comedian Tina Fey and Palin. Fey had decided she would play Palin after her daughter saw a picture of the Alaskan governor and mistook Palin for her mother. Viewers began to speculate who would play Palin on "SNL" during the run up to the November 4 presidential election. Days before the broadcast of the sketch, "SNL" executive producer Lorne Michaels said "there are [ongoing] discussions" about Fey playing Palin. On September 13, 2008, NBC announced that Fey would appear in the thirty-fourth-season premiere. The first sketch, "A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary
Sarah Palin new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength." While aides were preparing the teleprompter for McCain's speech, they found a concession speech written for Palin by George W. Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully. Two members of McCain's staff, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter, told Palin that there was no tradition of Election Night speeches by running mates, and that she would not be speaking. Palin appealed to McCain, who agreed with his staff. Political scientists have debated the impact that Palin had on the outcome of the 2008 presidential election. A 2010