VP Debate: Sarah Palin and Joe Biden - SNL

good evening I'm Gwen Ifill to Washington University in st. Louis Missouri to the first and only 2008 vice presidential debate between the Republican nominee governor Sarah Palin of Alaska and the Democratic nominee Joe Biden of Delaware let's welcome the candidates of course okay cuz I practice a couple zingers where I call you Jill okay great now tonight's discussion will cover a wide range of topics including domestic and foreign policy matters each candidate will have 90 seconds to respond to a direct question and then an additional two minutes for rebuttal and follow-up as moderator I will not ask any follow-up questions beyond do you agree or your response so as not to appear bias for Barack Obama in light of my new book the breakthrough politics of race the age of Obama coming up on Inauguration Day and available for pre-order on amazon.com and finally we would like to remind our audience that due to the historically low expectations for governor Palin were she simply to do an adequate job tonight and that no point cry faint run out of the building or vomit you should consider the debate a tie all right let's begin senator Biden how as vice president would you work to shrink the gap of polarization that has sprung up in Washington well I would do what I've done my whole career whether it's been dealing with violence against women or putting 100,000 police officers in the streets I would reach across the aisle like I've done with so many members of the other party members like John McCain because look I love John McCain he's one of my dearest friends but at the same time he's also dangerously unbalanced I mean let's be frank John McCain and again this is a man I would take a bullet for he's bad at his job and mentally unstable as my mother would say God loved him but he's a raging maniac and a dear dear friend Governor Palin how will your administration deal with the current financial crisis well first of all let me say how nice it is to meet Joe Biden and may I say up close your hair plugs don't look nearly as bad as everyone says you know john mccain and i we're a couple of Mavericks and gosh darn it we're going to take that maverick energy right to Washington and we're going to use it to fix this financial crisis and everything else that's plagued in this great country of ours how will you solve the financial crisis being a maverick you know we're gonna take every aspect of the crisis and look at it and then we're gonna ask ourselves what would a maverick do in this situation and then you know we'll do that senator Biden how would your administration address the current financial crisis Barack Obama and I understand that we need to regulate Wall Street John McCain voted against Wall Street regulation 41 times let me repeat that 41 times and again this is a man I love if I had to spend the rest of my life on a desert island with only one other person it would be John McCain no doubt about it I mean you should see the way my face lights up when he walks into a room but the fact is John McCain has voted with George Bush 90% of the time let me say that again time governor Palin would you like to respond to senator Biden's comments about John McCain no thank you but I would like to talk about being an outsider you see while senator Biden has been in Washington all these years I've been with regular people hockey moms and Joe six-packs and I'd also like to give a shout-out to the third graders of Gladys Woods Elementary who were so helpful to me in my debate prep also too you see I think a little differently from an insider I don't think it's patriotic to pay more taxes I don't think it's patriotic to criticize these Wars we got going on I do think it's patriotic to tell the government hey get out of my way stop trying to impose on my right to shoot wolves from a helicopter but a Washington insider like Joe Biden probably disagrees yeah you know I get a little tired of being told I'm an insider I come from Scranton Pennsylvania and that's his hardscrabble of places you're gonna find I'll show you around sometime and you'll see it's a hellhole an absolute jerk water of a town you couldn't stand to spend a weekend there it's just an awful awful sad place filled with sad desperate people with no ambition nobody and I mean nobody but me has ever come out of that place it's a genetic cesspool so don't be telling me that I'm part of the Washington elite because I come from the absolute worst place on earth Scranton Pennsylvania and Wilmington Delaware is not much better senator Palin address your position on global warming and whether or not you think it's man-made or not when we don't know if this climate change hoozy what's it is man-made or if it's just a natural part of the end of days but I'm not going to talk about that I would like to talk about taxes because with Barack Obama you're gonna be paying higher taxes but not with me and my fellow maverick we are not afraid to get maverick II in there and ruffle feathers and not got to allow that and also to the great Ronald Reagan we next question is for you senator Biden do you support as they do in Alaska granting same-sex benefits to couples I do in an obama/biden administration same-sex couples would be guaranteed the same property rights rights to insurance and rights of ownership as heterosexual couples there will be no distinction I repeat no distinction so to clarify do you support gay marriage senator Bunn absolutely not but I do think they should be allowed to visit one another in a hospital and in a lot of ways that's just as good if not better governor Palin would you extend same-sex rights to the entire country you know I would be afraid of where that would lead I believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers but don't think I don't tolerate gay people because I do I tolerate them with all my heart and I know quite a few to not personally but I know of them I've seen Ellen oh and there was this one girl in my college basketball team she wasn't officially a gay but you know we were pretty sure governor Palin what is your position on health care regulation I'm gonna ignore that question and instead talk about Israel I love Israel so much bless its heart there's a special place for Israel in heaven and I know some people are gonna say that I'm only saying that to pander to Florida voters but from a very young age my two greatest loves were always Jews and Cuban food I would now like to give each of you a chance to make a closing statement are we not doing the talent portion senator Biden your closing statement my goal tonight was a simple one to come up here and at no point seem like a condescending egomaniacal bully and I'm gonna be honest I think I nailed it sure there were moments when I wanted to say hey this lady's a dummy but I didn't because Joe Biden is better than that I repeat Joe Biden is better than that so to all the pundits who said I would seem cocky or arrogant you dopes got schooled Biden style governor palin i like to be in here tonight answering these tough questions without the filter of the mainstream gotcha media with their follow-up questions fact-checking or incessant need to figure out what your words mean and why you put them in that order i am happy to be speaking directly to the American people to let them know if you want an outsider who doesn't like politics as usual or pronouncing the G at the end of the word she's saying I think you know who to vote for oh and for those Joe six-packs out there playing a drinking game at home maverick well this concludes tonight's debate the book drops November 4th and live from New York it

Channel: Saturday Night Live

Views: 3,705,849

Rating: 4.8225007 out of 5

Keywords: Scranton, Global Warming, Marriage, Maverick, Financial Crisis, Wall Street, Senator, SNL, Saturday Night Live, 2000s, Season 34, Cold Openings, 2008, Jason Sudeikis, Tina Fey, Vice President, Queen Latifah, Election, Debate, Race, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Live from New York, Governor, Joe Biden, John McCain, Alaska

Id: _iyIbbxVzrU

Length: 12min 12sec (732 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 23 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/SandorSNL]

I do always love the line "Oh, are we not doing the talent portion?"

[u/frigginelvis]

For those of us in the US:

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/vp-debate-open-palin--biden/n12319

[u/[deleted]]

Thanks for this. When I heard about her death, I immediately thought of her being immortalized by Queen Latifah 😊