Thursday Clips

Fear of a Black President? No more at Saturday Night Live as Jay Pharoah will take over the Barack Obama role this season from Fred Armisen. SNL got some flack four years back when the role of teh first African America president went to the white/Asian Armisen, and frankly he was starting to look bored with the role. Only a couple Obama sketches last year, and one of those was more a Bill Cosby sketch than an Obama sketch.

Also of note for the SNL season that starts this week: Jason Sudeikis, and more importantly his Mitt Romney and Joe Biden, will be back for at least the first half of the season.

While Sudeikis' Biden is funny in a dorky way, the real man is deeper than the Onion persona. A little behind the curve here, but the veep gave a moving speech at the Pennsylvania 9/11 crash site memorial. We remember the choo-choo jokes but too often we forget the reason Biden was taking Amtrak home to Delaware every night: to care for his young sons who has lost their mom and sister.

As for Romney, yesterday may go down in history as the final turning point in the campaign, as Mitt's botched response to the Libyan consulate attack reinforced the image of a man willing to say or do anything, principle be damned, to try to win. Obama: "And as president, one of the things I've learned is you can't do that-it's important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts and that you've thought through the ramifications before you make them."

The Gazette has an excellent, West Liberty based explanation of why Matt Schultz has "emergency" voter registration rules are on the table. A tip of the beret to Senator Tom Courtney, who acquires West Liberty in redistricting, for standing up for the rights of the Latino community.

Finally, here's how Todd Akin is gaming the odds.