Obama's maladroit "lipstick on a pig" line

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I don't think Obama's meant it as a personal attack on Sarah Palin when he used the phrase "lipstick on a pig" to describe what the McCain-Palin ticket offers. It just doesn't sound like him; he's more graceful than that.
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Nah, he's totally passive aggressive("We're not gonna get bullied!, If they bring a knife to a knife fight, we'll bring a gun"). Palin = Pig, McCain = Old Fish. There is almostno way this wasn't preplanned.

Didn't McCain make the same comment in regards to Clinton's past Health care plan? "Lipstick on a pig" isn't something new, it's a comment people make. I think if Ms Palin is going to be taken seriously long term as a running mate or VP, the Republicans need to quit calling out "sexism" each time a possible negitive remark is made. This is an election for the running of our country, we need someone tough, not someone who has to be protected by their politcal party.

I'd grant him a mulligan on this if not for the fact that Obama surrogates have been making similar comments this week, specifically about Palin. This is just ridiculous. Why are these clowns so obsessed with the GOP VICE Presidential candidate anyway?

Obama is in total meltdown mode right now. He has no coherent message, he seems almost personally resentful that his star power has been stolen away by Sarah Palin, and he's throwing away the post-partisan image which was the ENTIRE basis of his appeal beyond the Democratic base.

The junior senator from Illinois had every conceivable advantage going into this election, but his campaign is operating like it's Dukakis II. Unbelievable.

This is an election for the running of our country, we need someone tough,

Yes, not some narcissist who whines when somebody makes a joke about "community organizers."

How come no one jumped all over McCain when he used this same expression during the primaries? "I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," McCain. It's an actual expression. People use expressions. This is ridiculous. The McCain camp is making themselves look like idiots by trying so hard to avoid the issues in this campaign. They don't have anything important to say, do they?

Reminds me of the kerfuffle over the word "niggardly." A common metaphor like "lipstick on a pig" is seen as a sexist attack by the new PC-police on the right.

Kip,

No one jumped on McCain's remark because McCain's supporters had not spent the two weeks preceding the remark comparing a female opponent of his to a horse and/or a moose, ridiculing her class and her religion, spreading literally dozens of malicious lies about her, calling her fitness as a mother into question, humiliating sexually her teenage daughter, and sadistically demeaning and denigrating her infant child, whom some of them public insinuate they wish had been euthanized in the womb.

There's a pesky little thing called context.

It counts for something sometimes.

When both comments are taken together Obama loses credibility or shows complete ineptness.

To follow a questionable lipstick and pig comment by an old fish comment pretty much means he was referring to the people on the ticket and not to any policies.

Want to know more about "Lipstick on a Pig?" Ask John McCain--his former PR Director, Torie Clark, wrote the book on it.

"Lipstick on a Pig: Winning In the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game" http://tinyurl.com/5kten6

Today's comments section brought to you by Willful Stupidity.

How's the Palin kool-aid fellas? I hear it's moose flavored.

Considering he is a Muslim, for Barack Obama to call Sarah Palin a "pig," whether directly or by insinuation or by innuendo or by veiled reference or by a stretch of the imagination (a stretch that wasn't hard for many to make), is the ultimate in insults.

McCain's plane may have crashed in Vietnam, but it's Obama's campaign that is in an ever-increasing tailspin.

Hillary must be chortling on the sidelines as she watches the little boy who would be President destroy his campaign one hateful foot in his mouth after another....

Really, Rufus, Republicans have no right to call out Democrats on the topic of "civil discourse." Karl Rove changed all that.

I'm fairly certain that Ann and Nancy Wilson own the copyright to "Lipstick on a Pig."

Neil

When people call her on her record, bring up her corruption as an Alaskan governor, her rampant earmarks (Alaska having the highest per capita in the nation), her desire to increase taxes on oil, being so fiscally irresponsible as to take a town of 8,000 and deliver them $19 million in debt

Peanuts sound-effect: wahn-wah, wahn-wah, wahn-wah....

What I don't understand is why Palin's defenders aren't constantly talking about his record sexist behavior?

I mean, this is a guy who committed adultry, who made a joke about Chelsea Clinton's appearance (when she was a teenager), has used rape as a topic for humor?

Oh, yeah. That's because it was John McCain who did all of these things.

John McCain, 1986: "Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’"

Seems to me the pig analogy fits for McCain.

We have a severe persecution complex in this country if a common idiom in the English language is blown out of proportion.

Kip,

What Obama did yesterday was to make synecdochic allusion to, and therefore to appropriate for his rhetorical ends, and therefore to legitimize as a part of the official discourse of his campaign, the whole malignant sub-genre of smack-talk and smut to which Sarah Palin and her family have been subjected these past two weeks. It was not a class move, nor, to all appearances so far, politically a shrewd one.

Linda,

The logic you use here is precisely the same logic used by Karl Rove and by Lee Atwater and by whatever other Republican ogre of yore your want to name in order to justify his own Obamaesque smack-talk and smearing of opponents -- "the other side started it; they did it first; so it's ok for us to do the same; we're still the guys in white hats" -- yadda yadda yadda ad infinitum. It's a question of chicken and eggs as to who "started it." It's not necessarily a question of chicken and eggs as to who will end it. Which is why I repeat my recommendation that Obama call upon his supporters to cease and desist from smearing Sarah Palin and her family and that he also give addresses on class bigotry and on religious bigotry analogous to his Philadelphia address on race. Of course, now he would also have to add a speech on misogyny, along with apologies both for the "pig-in-lipstick" and the "smelly fish" remarks, and also for the slurs on "bitter" Pennsylvanians which preceded it and were the opening salvo in this particular round in the culture war, which I grant preceded Obama's emergence on the national stage, but which he has shown absolutely no substantive sign of getting beyond.

Where was McCain when Obama was being slurred by the "M" word? You know..."Muslim"? Hasn't said a thing, huh?

Hypo-freaking-crite!

Palin doesn't speak issues. She mocks. She's mocked Obama since her first speech at the convention. She has lowered the bar on this campaign dramatically.

EG,

Some right-wing radio squawk-show host or other dog-whistled the Obama-is-a-Muslim rumor by repeatedly calling the man by his full name -- Barack *Hussein* Obama.

McCain took the squawk-jock to task tout de suite and apologized to Obama.

Now look, McCain has, in the past, been just as much of a cad as Obama has been of late, but you should at least judge Obama's statements *now* the same way you judge McCain's *then* -- otherwise, you have no credibility and your charges bear no weight.

And with that, I'm off to spend my day on more edifying matters than this.

People who think the "pig" part of the quip "proves" Obama's crypto-Muslim faith are off the mark. He ain't a Muslim.

The smelly fish part, though, is a different kettle of you-know-what. It's well known as gay code. For once, Andrew might bring some illumination to the question, if he could be trusted to be truthful. No one seems to remember Obama at Columbia in the early 80s--no students, no professors, nobody. The VP nominee of the Libertarian Party is Obama's classmate, and has a standing offer of millions to anyone who can prove BHO was anything more than a nominal student. What was his life like in the Manhattan of the Studio 54 era?

Palin drew blood last week, and Obama has gotten seriously flustered as a result. Expect more revealing gaffes in the weeks to come.

Daniel, you're wrong. It's not "capiche," which would be the French way of spelling. It's "capisce." If you're going to condescendingly correct people on their misuse of foreign words and phrases, make sure you get it right yourself.

Anyway, the more I think about this, the more I think it's a big mistake for McCain's team to play the sexism card, especially on such paper-thin grounds. What they're doing is laying the groundwork for Team Obama to play the race card if McCain says something that might even slightly be construed as racially insensitive. Nobody believes Barack Obama is a sexist, or should believe it, because there's no evidence of it. Similarly, I don't think anybody really believes John McCain is a racist, or has reason to. Has there been a sexist double standard deployed by some on the left against Palin? Sure. But Barack Obama hasn't gone there, and I think McCain will regret going there against Obama on the sexism front -- even if Obama was foolish to use the folksy phrase.

We are being asked to believe that he called Sarah Palin a pig. If the people making that accusation have half a brain they know it's not true. This is not a question of interpretation. It is a fact. So we now find out again that John McCain is prepared to tell an absolute lie - in public, verifiable, uncontestable.

Lies and the lying liars who tell them.

The Christian values party, as un-Christian as ever.

Last October, asked about Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was blunt. McCain said Clinton's proposal was "eerily" similar to the ill-fated plan she devised in 1993. "I think they put some lipstick on a pig," he said, "but it's still a pig."A common expression, right? McCain surely wasn't calling Clinton a pig. After all, McCain's former press secretary, Torie Clarke, wrote a book called "Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era." Elizabeth Edwards told some health journalists that McCain's health care plan was like "painting lipstick on a pig."

And the suckers take the bait. Again.

I really believe Sen. Obama's remark was not targeted at Gov. Palin, but judging from the loud and approving reaction of the crowd to his mildly funny comparison, I'd say THEY thought it was.

"No Hillary Democrats are going to be lost over this silliness."

At this point, you can only hope that is the case, given another unforced error by Obama. Sorry if my usage of "kapish" was too pedestrian for your sensibilities.

Rod, I agree this is being overplayed by the the McCain campaign. There isn't any need to do so, everyone is already so hyper-sensitized to this type of feigned insult, reacting to the use common phrases over the past 30 years. At this point, the words will do their work all by themselves, as we all have been well trained.

Being clobbered with a bludgeon of one's own careful crafting is no fun. We conservatives understand that all too well. In this case, the role reversal is quite appropriate.

The Katie Couric part of the ad was a mistake and off-message. Why not just let Obama show himself to be a boor? He's a cipher without the script. I agree this opens the "racism" door for the Obamites.

If their handlers just let Palin be Palin and Obama be Obama, the difference in breeding and character will become abundantly clear. The presidency will seem above his pay grade and the vice-presidency below hers.

I stand corrected. According to OED, capiche is not an acceptable spelling although other sources say it is acceptable.

The more I think about this, the more I think it's a big mistake for McCain's team to play the sexism card, especially on such paper-thin grounds. What they're doing is laying the groundwork for Team Obama to play the race card if McCain says something that might even slightly be construed as racially insensitive.

Too late, Rod. Team Obama is already doing it, and did it the morning Obama made the lipstick remark:

wcbstv.com/politics/paterson.mccain.palin.2.813646.html

McCain Campaign Disputes Paterson's Racism Claim Governor Implies Palin's Repeated Use Of 'Community Organizer' Is Another Way Of Saying 'Black' Don Dahler ALBANY (CBS) ― On Monday, Gov. David Paterson angered some state lawmakers by comparing them to vampires, calling them a bunch of "blood suckers." On Tuesday, he raised eyebrows again, and tempers, by accusing the John McCain campaign of veiled racism. At the Crain's Business Forum this morning, Paterson drew attention to a phrase used numerous times by speakers at the Republican National Convention to describe Barack Obama's leadership experience: community organizer. "I think the Republican Party is too smart to call Barack Obama 'black' in a sense that it would be a negative. But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican Convention – a 'community organizer.' They kept saying it, they kept laughing," he said. Paterson referred to McCain's running mate Sarah Palin who compared her work experience to Obama's. "So I suppose a small town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except with real responsibilities," she said at the convention. Paterson sees the repeated use of the words "community organizer" as Republican code for "black". "I think where there are overtones is when there are uses of language that are designed to inhibit other people's progress with a subtle reference to their race," he said. But the McCain/Palin campaign quickly fired back in a statement, saying: "It is disappointing that Governor Paterson would launch accusations of racism. … Governor Palin's remarks about Barack Obama's work as a community organizer was in response to the Obama campaign's belittling of her executive experience." The statement goes on to point out Sarah Palin's own experience of civic involvement and says Paterson's comments are "a sure sign of a flailing campaign that is bordering on desperation". Paterson raises the question of whether the Presidential race has become desperate or devious. "At this point, Americans wouldn't tolerate a racial appeal. What I'm saying is that there are sneaky ways to try to hurt someone," he said. Paterson does say he's not certain that's happening. But what disturbed him was what seemed like derisive laughter on the part of the Republicans at Obama's choice of helping his community rather than getting rich on Wall Street. Paterson is New York state's first black governor.

There's a good rule in game-playing: If you get the first move, play nice. If your opponent responds in kind, continue to play nice. But if your opponent makes a nasty play, respond in kind. Wash, rinse, repeat. Team Obama and their in-their-pocket media friends have been making the first nasty moves.

NY Post a few days ago put a picture of Palin on a front page with a heading: "A pitbull in a lipstick" and nobody was offended. I guess, some people like pitbulls more than pigs.

The notion that (only just) *now* will Obama start playing the race card has to be the single most risible piece of political commentary in a campaign season that's seen more risible political commentary than any in my life-time.

The race card has been Obama's calling card from the very start and he has played it again and again and again and again and again -- sometimes when he was justified in doing so, usually when he was not.

Read what that rabid right-winger and red-state redneck bigot Sean Wilentz has written on this subject.

If McCain were playing this game in as racially manipulative a way as Obama has been and will continue to do, every other word out of his mouth would be "Bridget."

Obama never lets us forget that he is the *child* of a bi-racial marriage.

McCain -- whatever else he might be capable of stooping to -- hardly ever gets up in one's face with the fact that he is the *father* in a bi-racial family, that he is the *father* of a daughter who is of an ethnicity other than his own.

If he were a Democrat, you would never, ever hear the end of it.

The bottom line here is that the Obama Campaign has been laughably incompetent over the past month.
Focusing daily on Gov. Palin only diminishes Sen. Obama. He doesn't seem presidential, he certainly doesn't seem at all "post-partisan," and he comes across like a wimp -- angered about being bested by a woman and unable to take on John McCain.

Democratic pros are in full panic mode about the ineptitude of Obama-Biden -- which lacks the Clinton people who actually know how to run a general election campaign. In private, the same name keeps being whispered over and over:

DUKAKIS.

"But what a remarkably stupid thing for Obama to say. Until now, his campaign has been a well-oiled machine."

Maybe he's trying to reach the real, salt-of-the-earth people who see vulgarity as down home plain speakin'. If it works for Palin...

When speaking to or about a female opponent. Any male who doesn't know instinclually not to use the words lipstick and pig in the same sentence is an idiot.

Why? Because her feelings might get hurt, because, you know, she's just a poor widdle girl?

Things are about to get nasty:

nationalenquirer.com/_palin_family_shockers_what_sarahs_really_hiding/celebrity/65407

You know, Rod, I was with you in dismay when that unfortunate professor's use of the word "niggardly" got him in trouble, and I'm a bit disappointed you are not quite as outraged here.

I mean, geez, we have a professor using a word that was not in the vernacular for at least decades, if not a century, and you are appropriately outraged at the injustice.

Now we have the McCain campaign piously boo hooing about a phrase that is very much in the vernacular today, that has never had a sexist connotation before, and you tell us Obama was foolish to use the phrase??

You've lost all cred to go after PC, my friend.

This whole lipstick on a pig kerfuffle is ridiculous. I will not vote for Obama/Biden, but I do not believe for a minute that Obama meant some sexist barb at Palin. From what I have seen and read about Obama, I believe that I would like him personally, as I do many friends who are misguided lefties (probably the majority of my friends), and enjoy spending time with him. But, I would not want most of my friends running the country or deciding how much of my assets they could re-distribute to others.

For all those who want to think Obama meant no insult... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! you really like to fool yourself, go ahead and try.

My wife had an interesting take on Obama's clumsy and juvenile double entendre... "I'm sick of Clinton, why does he have to do the same stupid thing's I was tired of hearing from Clinton?"

I agree. It was clumsy, juvenile, and absolutely intended the worst insults that could be drawn from it - but tried to create "Plausible deniability" for himself.

Sorry Obama, you're far too transparent. It was stupid, bad judgement, and juvenile. And sadly, the actual measure of a very small man.

Watcher said:

"And by the way ... where's Smokin' Joe Biden?"

Apparently out telling people that Hillary would have been a better pick for VP! Is he trying to jump a sinking ship? Or just put lipstick on it?

McCain's use of "lipstick on a pig" was in direct reference to Hillary Clinton. Watch it here: youtube.com/watch?v=BR8IhMMhe8w - Posted by: James | September 11, 2008 11:20 AM

No, James. In wasn't in direct reference to Hillary Clinton. It was in direct reference to her health care plan:

McCain: "Yes, sir."

Reporter: "I noticed in your speech you avoided any comparison of your plan to Hillary Clinton's plan. I'm curious, have you or your staff put a price tag on what you see coming out of her campaign for Hillarycare?"

McCain: "No, but I... there's many things that concern me about it. It's vaguely... not vaguely, but eerily reminiscent of what they tried back in 1993. I think they put some lipstick on the pig, but it's still a pig."

Maybe you need some new speakers or headphones.