People take shots at me all the time. They say I'm a crazy liberal. That always makes me laugh a bit, because I've always fancied myself a moderate.

But in a predominantly Republican region, I take my blows with a grain or two of salt.

If anything, criticism of my column has been healthy for me as I've always been a bit too sensitive (A confession, Mom. Revel. Revel!).

But despite my toughening skin, I have to wonder how my ego would hold up against a dead-on “Saturday Night Live” parody.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of watching “Saturday Night Live” over the past few weeks, the impersonations are uncanny. Darrell Hammond does a fierce impression of John McCain.

In the most recent spoof, “Joe the Plumber” is revealed to be an imaginary elf living under McCain's bed in a tiny cigar box. Fred Armisen brilliantly captures Barack Obama's stone face proclaiming that his top priority as president would be to wean fans off the long-suffering Chicago Cubs.

But no one has upstaged the election more than Tina Fey, whose eerie imitation of Sarah Palin is so spot-on it's almost painful to watch.

In fact, Fey copied Palin's infamous Katie Couric interview word for word. It is bad enough when people are mocking you, but when your actual words become comedic dialogue, things are pretty bad.

It seems logical that Palin would decide to make a guest appearance. What choice did she have but to laugh along?

I think people may underestimate the impact of shows like “Saturday Night Live,” “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” These satire news programs tend to have higher ratings than serious news programs and can have a huge impact on people's perception of the candidates.

Many believe that Chevy Chase's klutzy impression of Gerald Ford may have cost him the election. And President George H.W. Bush once scolded Dana Carvey for Carvey's frequent mis-portrayals of the president. All in good fun?

It will be interesting to see what impact, if any, these spoofs will have on the election.

If nothing else, I'm curious to see if Palin can play the flute better than Fey, providing they permit the talent competition.

Estabrook's column appears Mondays, and she can be reached at estabrookcarole@yahoo.com