Though the women were onscreen together for only a moment, the bit worked because Fey and Palin looked exactly alike.
"Hey Lorne," Baldwin said, "you can't let Tina go out and stand there with that woman. She goes against everything that we stand for. . . . You want our Tina to go out there and stand there with that horrible woman?"
Palin smiled politely and continued to smile when Michaels informed Baldwin - oops! - that he was standing next to the vice-presidential candidate, not Fey, and the actor told her, "You are way hotter in person."
The derision jumped several levels during the "Weekend Update" segment later in the show, as Palin busted a move while sitting at the desk and listening to an Amy Poehler rap, supported by mock Eskimos; cast member Jason Sudeikis goofing on her husband, Todd; and somebody in a silly moose suit, who got shot.
"In Wasilla, we just chill, baby, chilla, but when I see oil, it's drill, baby, drilla," Poehler chanted. "McCain-Palin, we're gonna put the nail in the coffin of the media elite."
"She likes red meat," sang the Eskimos.
Palin kept her own verbiage to a minimum. "I'm not going to take any of your questions," she told the pretend reporters who had been grilling her funny alter ego. But she did get to deliver the standard show-starting shout-out, "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!"
Heady stuff for a small-town gal. If she doesn't make it to Washington, she'll always have SNL.
Palin's appearance was well-publicized in advance, but not by the show. Stung when Barack Obama changed his mind about a widely rumored appearance on the season premiere, Michaels would not confirm the booking beforehand.
She did it for him, telling syndicated radio host Neal Boortz on Friday that the plan was set but that she had no idea what her appearance would entail.
