SNL Expects Obama Nov. 1

Donations from family of Mexican casino boss Pepe Cardona

(NEWSER) - The Obama campaign has decided to return more than $200,000 worth of donations linked to Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, aka Pepe, a Mexican casino magnate who jumped bail in Iowa in 1994 to avoid drug and fraud charges, and has since come under suspicion of assassinating a business rival and making illegal campaign donations in Mexico. The donations were bundled by Cardona's brothers, Carlos Rojas Cardona and Alberto Rojas Cardona, both Americans. The New York Times confronted the Obama campaign about them yesterday. More»

And Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin is still pretty scary: reactions

(NEWSER) - If you thought Julianne Moore's Sarah Palin was terrifying in the first Game Change teaser , wait until you see her in the full trailer, where she utters lines such as, "We have to win this thing. I so don’t want to go back to Alaska." Watch below, then read on for some reactions:

• This will clearly be "a Frankenstein-esque story about McCain’s staffers coming to regret the choice they made in bringing a little-known governor into the limelight," writes Jon Bershad at Mediaite . "The full trailer ... gives us even more famous actors getting their turn to stare in horror at the 'monster' they’ve created."

HBO debuts first teaser

(NEWSER) - For all of you who have spent the past nine months wondering how Julianne Moore’s Sarah Palin impersonation will stack up against Tina Fey’s , you finally have your answer. HBO debuted its first teaser trailer for Game Change, the film due in March that's based on the Mark Halperin-John Heilemann book about the 2008 presidential election. Neither Ed Harris as John McCain nor Woody Harrelson as top adviser Steve Schmidt sound much like their real-life counterparts, notes David Jackson in USA Today , but Moore’s Palin is spot-on: Numerous publications including People , New York , the Huffington Post , and Jezebel are fairly impressed. More»

What, did you expect her to like it?

(NEWSER) - Is someone a little put out that she didn’t get a holiday card from the first family? Sarah Palin was recently on Fox News criticizing the Obama family’s pic , noting that the card—which features Bo Obama in front of a White House fireplace—focuses on the dog instead of “family, faith, and freedom,” which she finds “odd.” She was also peeved that the card includes no mention of Christmas or even a Christmas tree, the Los Angeles Times reports. More»

'I'm not there yet with the field as it stands,' she grouses

(NEWSER) - She's baaaack ... maybe. With the GOP line-up still creaky, Sarah Palin let slip on the Fox Business Network that it's "not too late for folks to jump in. Who knows what might happen in the future?" Or so she mused last night when asked on Follow the Money if she might make a late entrance. The tease didn't lead to any specifics. Palin announced in October she would not seek the nomination but that could change. When she was quizzed over the weekend about whom she would endorse, she didn't have an answer, notes the New York Times. “I am just not there yet with the field as it stands,” she responded, adding more sauce to the tantalizing mystery. More»