Lipstick On A Pig

Oooh, big controversy on an old phrase that Obama used during a speech in Virginia:

“John McCain says he’s about change, too — except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics,” Mr. Obama told his supporters here. “That’s just calling the same thing something different.”
With a laugh, he added: “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change; it’s still going to stink after eight years.”

Wait a minute! Did he just call John McCain a stinky, old fish?! That's ageist! Of course, the Rovians and the Mothers of Distraction jumped on the lipstick comment as a slap in the face to the poor, defenseless pitbull, Sarah Palin. Oooh, it's sexist! How can he say such a thing?

You know what? I'm glad he said it. In my opinion there's no way that after the Republican National Convention and Palin's pithy comment about the difference between pitbulls and hockey moms being lipstick, that ANYONE in the Obama campaign would think that using "lipstick on a pig" wouldn't be twisted and misconstrued as an attack on Palin. But think about it. If Obama thought about that turn of phrase and didn't just use it off the top of his head, then I think it was a direct "FUCK YOU" to the McCain camp with plausible deniability.

Everyone's talking about how Obama isn't tough enough. Well how about now? At first I thought Obama had my blog bookmarked because I called her a pig a couple of days ago (HAHAHA!) not because she's an ugly woman, but because her attitude and meanness were ugly, as shown with her acceptance speech.

If you want another take on it, Obama could be calling McCain the pig and Palin the lipstick. You can put a pretty face out there to tell you want you think you want to hear, but it's the same old game with different players. Either way, it's a shot across the bow from someone who took the lessons of 2000 and 2004 to heart and isn't going to sit back while the American public is being lied to by pigs wearing lipstick.

And by the way, I wonder if anyone else has used that phrase recently...

The reaction set off a frenzied dive into the opposition research vault. Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton sent reporters a Chicago Tribune article published in 2007 during the Democratic primaries that cites McCain criticizing Hillary Clinton’s health care plan. “I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” McCain is quoted as saying about Clinton’s proposal.

So fuck you, McCain, fuck you surrogates, and fuck you Palin! If the lipstick fits...


UPDATE (11:45am): Obama says "Enough!" of the distractions and made up controversies. BAM!



Okay, so Obama speechifies and calls this a made up controversy, which it obviously is. In my conspiratorial mind, it's just part of the plan to make the Republicans and the McCain camp look petty, silly and show proof that they remain true to their devisive political games. Or, Barack Obama took a perceived nagative and flipped it into a positive by forcing us to face the real issues instead of falling for the Mothers of Distraction. Seems like a win-win either way.

(H/T Bob Cesca and Paddy)