In the midst of their seeming support for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, the good folks at NBC's "Saturday Night Live" appeared to advise Barack Obama last evening to do everything within his power to distance himself from Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
In an animated sketch entitled "The Obama Files," candidate Barack is seen hiding Jackson from the press by talking to him in a broom closet as he instructs the reverend to go abroad as a "special envoy" to what ends up being non-existent countries.
Later, Sharpton showed up complaining that Obama had sent him to East Paraguay (h/t Tim Graham):
It turns out there is no East Paraguay. That set me back a month...And Oprah wasn't there like you said she'd be.
As Sharpton's frustration builds about not being allowed to campaign for the junior senator from Illinois, Obama grants Al's wish, but fits the reverend with a "Pet Stop" collar that prevents Sharpton from getting anywhere near Obama when he's on the stump.
In the end, this was some pretty gutsy and hard-hitting satire pointed directly at two of the country's foremost civil rights leaders specifically suggesting that their presence in the Obama campaign would hinder the junior senator's chances of defeating Hillary Clinton.
