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Have the skits on Saturday Night Live the past two weeks begun to shape the Democratic race for President? Apparently yes. Up until this point the media has been rather “soft” on Barack Obama, but just yesterday they unleashed a series of question at a press conference ranging from conversations with Canada over NAFTA and his relationship with Tony Rezco (a Chicago business man and Obama supporter on trial for corruption). Barack Obama apparently seemed stunned by the change of events and was hurried off stage after only answering a few of the questions, claiming he was, “running late.” Saturday Night Live for the past two weeks has opened their show with skits depicting the media as Barack Obama lovers, refusing to ask the candidate tough questions and sucking up to him, while at the same time hammering Hillary Clinton. It seems the media cares what the media thinks about itself. It is obvious that the media prefers Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton. If this was not true, they would not have changed their approach with Barack Obama yesterday. It is the idea that if you aren’t doing anything wrong, there is no reason to change directions. The media was called out by Saturday Night Live and the media seems to agree with SNL’s perception. It makes sense that the media would favor Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton. He is the new candidate on the scene.

Hillary has been around for a long time and they have written stories about her for the past two decades. Barack Obama is the shiny new candidate and the media wants to take him for a test ride to see how he handles. It seems though that at the conclusion of the test ride, the media now might be ready to start driving Obama like a rental car.

Saturday Night Live has had a long history of satirizing political candidates. They have portrayed George Bush as unintelligent, Bill Clinton as a womanizer, and Ronald Reagan as an old man that takes naps. During the 2000 election Al Gore was shown as an individual that would bore the country to death with weekly prime time lessons on the economy, while George Bush would be overwhelmed and have the country on fire within the first two days in office.

It is nice to see the media begin to treat the candidates similarly. The American people need to see how each candidate reacts when put to the fire and whether they can weather the storm of media scrutiny. It isn’t fair for Barack Obama to get a free ride, because the moment he becomes President if he wins, that free ride would end and the American people would then only after the election see whether he could handle the media’s peering eyes. We know Hillary Clinton and John McCain can take it, they have been in the public eye for years and have been scrutinized and bashed by the media for every misspoken word. It is now up to Barack Obama to show whether he can take the heat.