Amy Goes 'Obama' on Parks and Rec

Amy Poehler, whose Hillary Clinton impression made her a household name on Saturday Night Live last fall, now embodies the yes-we-can ethos of the Obama generation on her new NBC sitcom, writes Joshua Alston in Newsweek. Parks and Recreation follows Poehler’s haplessly hopeful bureaucrat as she tries to overcome setbacks and build a community park in Indiana.

The role, says Alston, showcases Poehler at her finest: “The political comedian for people who take their comedy as seriously as their politics.” Whether she’s cackling like Hillary or baiting like Dennis Kucinich, “Poehler has the same knack for injecting a kernel of humanity into a character that had been boiled down to broad strokes and sound bites."
(More Amy Poehler stories.)