This week’s Saturday Night Live cold-open featured a parody of Fox News’ morning infotainment offering Fox and Friends, but according to Tucker Carlson‘s Daily Caller, that wasn’t always the plan. Someone leaked a script for an alternate opener, in which Fred Armisen‘s President Obama addresses the nation about the anniversary of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Although The DC says it’s “unclear” why the sketch was cut, leaking it to an anti-Obama website sends a pretty clear message: time for another round of election-year fine whine about the long-running comedy show. 
 
 The 2008 election saw a resurgence in Saturday Night Live’s cultural relevance, but along with it came charges of bias from supporters of all three major presidential candidates: then-Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. The show was even a focal point of John Ziegler‘s pro-Palin film Media Malpractice, in which he somehow managed to accuse the show of dueling biases. 
 
 Coincidentally, several such lightning-rod sketches during the 2008 campaign was penned by Jim Downey, who also wrote the script that was leaked to The Daily Caller. In 2008, former SNL head writer Adam McKay accused Downey of a stealth Republican pro-Hillary bias on The Huffington Post: 
 
 Even Ann Coulter pal and SNL sketch writer Jim Downey has written several sketches portraying Hillary as picked on by the press. Downey is one of the all time great sketch writers but I know he’s no Hillary fan. Don’t get me wrong, I like Hillary and still think Bill Clinton is one of our great presidents. But it’s weird. Weird like….well, Pat Buchanan praising Hillary Clinton. …(SNL has) had its left wing writers like Al Franken and it’s right-wing writers like Jim Downey, who also wrote those Bush-Gore debates sketches. Franken is now running for the Senate and Downey is spinning primaries. 
 
 Downey, though, told The New York Times, at the time, that he actually favored Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton, and would vote for him if he were the eventual nominee. 
 
 Now that Downey’s anti-Obama sketch has been pulled and leaked to an anti-Obama website, we can expect more bleating about a pro-Obama bias at SNL, and despite The Daily Caller‘s protestations that “It is not clear why the skit was scrapped,” whoever leaked it to them obviously did so for a reason, and The Daily Caller‘s Gregg Re, who is not an entertainment reporter, obviously wrote about it for a reason. 
 
 However, what Downey said in 2008 about such accusations probably still holds true today. Asked if the show had a pro-Hillary bias, Downey said “I’m just trying to make the sketches funny.” 
 
 The sketch that was allegedly pulled from this past weekend’s show simply wasn’t funny, and while regular viewers of SNL know that doesn’t always keep a sketch off the air, this script’s premise had already been done by the show, and done better, in the aftermath of the actual bin Laden raid. Here it is, in case you missed it: 
 
 
 
 
 
 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| The Daily Caller has obtained a scrapped sketch critical of President Barack Obama that was intended for airing at the opening of last night’s “Saturday Night Live” on NBC. 
 
 In the skit, President Obama addresses Americans soon after the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden — and he makes sure to remind viewers that all credit for the raid on the terrorist leader’s compound belongs to him. 
 
 “I hope you had a safe and joyous first anniversary of his killing,” the president, portrayed by Fred Armisen, begins. 
 
 “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be at home this year, as I had to fly to Afghanistan, to remind President Karzai that, exactly one year ago, we killed Osama bin Laden, and that the decision to do so was a gutsy one,” the president continues. “And was mine.” 
 
 The president then outlines what gifts are appropriate on the anniversaries of “Killing Osama bin Laden Day,” and reminds his audience that “heavy drinking, and Killing Osama bin Laden Day, are never a good combination.” 
 
 The full text of the skit, which was authored by comedian Jim Downey, is viewable below. It is not clear why the skit was scrapped. 
 
 The real President Obama has faced harsh criticism in recent weeks for allegedly politicizing bin Laden’s death by taking too much credit for the operation that killed him. 
 
 Instead of the skit, NBC opted instead to air a parody of Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends.” That skit, which also featured Armisen, mocked Fox News personalities by portraying them as clueless partisans. 
 
 “Shame on President Barack Obama, who is running a campaign ad that argues that Mitt Romney would not have made the decision to launch the raid,” said Taran Killam, who portrayed Fox personality Steve Doocy. 
 
 “I can name one person who wouldn’t have launched that raid: Barack Obama!” Bobby Moynihan, playing Fox host Brian Kilmeade, interjected. 
 
 Follow Gregg on Twitter 
 
 Obama Address Cold Open – May 6, 2012
– Saturday Night Live opened this weekend with a sketch parodying Fox News (catch highlights here)—but the show had planned a spoof of President Obama, the Daily Caller reports. The ditched sketch featured regular Obama impersonator Fred Armisen taking a lot of credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden. "I hope you had a safe and joyous first anniversary of his killing," Armisen was scripted to say. "Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be at home this year." That's because "I had to fly to Afghanistan to remind President Karzai that, exactly one year ago, we killed Osama bin Laden, and that the decision to do so was a gutsy one. And was mine." The blog notes that it's "not clear why the skit was scrapped." Still, let's get ready for "another round of election-year fine whine about the long-running comedy show," Mediaite suggests, full of "bleating about pro-Obama bias."