Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Obama On Palin: Lipstick On A Pig

Well, the common complaint of Hillary Clinton's supporters that Sen. Barack Obama is a sexist pig came through loud and clear today. Playing on Gov. Sarah Palin's hockey mom description of herself as a pitbull with lipstick, Sen. Obama referred to her as a pig with lipstick at an appearance in Lebanon, Virginia today to the cheers of the invitation-only partisan crowd. An angry reaction from McCain was met with a denial from Obama's campaign, which says Obama was actually talking about McCain and not Palin. Sen. Joe Biden added insult to injury by telling a reporter today that Sarah Palin's election as the nation's first female vice president would actually be a setback for women!

Throughout this year's primary battle with Clinton, Obama repeatedly made offensive, sexist comments about Clinton which were barely noticed by the mainstream media. Whenever Clinton challenged Obama, he would make a comment like "she's taking out the claws", "when she's feeling down periodically she launched attacks on me", or she was simply "throwing China" at him. Obama once gestured brushing Clinton off his shoulders to a cheering audience. Similarly, Obama has gone out of his way to make derisive comments in reference to McCain's age, such as "he's losing his bearings" or his "half century of service to his country."

Despite the perception the media portrays of Obama of being a fresh face for change, he is the dirtiest campaigner you will find. Playing hardball Chicago politics, he was able to win his first state senate race unopposed by unleashing a team of lawyers to challenge the nominating petitions of all of his opponents and get them thrown off the ballot on technicalities. It is actually common for African-American candidates in Chicago to file flawed nominating petitions because of the large number of valid signatures of registered voters residing in a district a candidate is required to obtain in order to make it in on the ballot, but it is very rare for one black candidate to systematically remove all of his black opponents from the ballot, including a prominent South Side reform politician like Alice Palmer, like Obama did. He destroyed both his primary and general election opponents in his U.S. Senate race by digging up dirt from their sealed divorce records and peddling them to the Chicago Tribune where his campaign guru David Axelrod was formerly employed. He boasts of his big Senate win four years ago in Illinois, but the fact is that he won by default because of the dirt he was successful in getting the Chicago media to play up to destroy his opponents.

Obama and his campaign can protest all they want, but I'm convinced the "pig with a lipstick" comment was aimed at Palin. Despite his claim that his campaign is not involved in the smears against Palin, the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming. The Democrats have dispatched a team of 30 lawyers and opposition research operatives to Alaska to dig up dirt to destroy Palin. Obama's campaign is in a complete panic because all the new polling data suggests there has been a major shift in the support of white women voters away from Obama and towards McCain, who now leads this group by double-digit margins. If the Obama campaign thinks they're going to win this race by running against Palin and trying to paint her as an extremist, religious zealot who doesn't know what the hell she's doing, they're making a big mistake. Their efforts are only further rallying the religious right behind McCain and solidifying the Republican ticket's support among white female voters and values voters.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

So wait... calling yourself a pitbull with lipstick is ok, although it's a twist on the pig with lipstick saying. And that was an adlib by Palin, or so it's reported.

But following through with the usual logic.. and applying it to McCain and his policies.. that's offensive?

What about the way McCain is portraying the "scary black man" as a "sexual predator" now.. with the so-called education ad?

McCain can't win on policy, so it's all personality all the time. And I can't wait to see how he gets a crowd, when Sarah goes back to Alaska.

Political Season said...

Its bad enough the tripe that our political discourse in this country has become. Why be part of that? Obama uses an old as dirt colloquialism and now he's calling Palin a pig? You had the video. He didn't say it. Simply didn't happen. Never even mentioned her name in the segment you played. He was talking about policy. Lets be bloggers, not liars.

Oh yeah, as for the Chicago petition challenges, in a state with voter ID law, I'd think you'd be cheering Obama's effort to uphold election laws and ensure the voting process is secure and free from fraud.

Mike Kole said...

This is a large stretch. i just watched the clip linked here, and Obama listed McCain policy as not change, and said, "you can put lipstick on a pig". He hadn't even referenced Palin.

There's plenty to not like about Obama without inventing smears.

Gary R. Welsh said...

The difference between Illinois and Indiana law is that a candidate in Indiana could run for the legislature by simply filling out a piece of paper and filing it with the Board of Elections. In Illinois, a candidate has to obtain hundreds of valid signatures of registered voters. It seems like an easy enough task, but you trying doing it up in Chicago. People move around all the time and don't update their voting address, the districts are so gerrymandered that neighborhoods are split up, making it difficult to figure out which district you live in, etc.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Mike, You don't know the real Barack Obama if you don't think he was referring to her. This is classic Barack Obama.

Downtown Indy said...

What do you suppose folks would say if McCain dared to utter a phrase like 'monkey see monkey do'? That's as 'old as dirt' phrase, too.

Betcha there would be immediate and nonstop ranting that it was aimed at Obama whether Obama was mentioned explicitly or not.

Vox Populi said...

What I don't understand is that there have been numerous uses of "lipstick on a pig" by both McCain and Obama over the years.

Indeed, here is McCain talking about Hillary Clinton's health care proposal last year:

"McCain criticized Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health-care proposals that require too much government regulation. While he said he had not studied Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's plan, he said it was "eerily reminiscent" of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the 1990s.

"I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," he said of her proposal."


http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/mccain_rolls_out_health_plan_a.html

Was he calling Hillary a pig? By your logic he was and he was the first to use a nasty, sexist term.

Or how about when Barack Obama used the reference last year when talking about Iraq:

'I think that both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker are capable people who have been given an impossible assignment,' Sen. Barack Obama said yesterday in a telephone interview. 'George Bush has given a mission to General Petraeus, and he has done his best to try to figure out how to put lipstick on a pig.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/13/AR2007091301679_pf.html

So who is the pig in that story?

It's clear you guys don't want this race to be about the issues. Your guy's campaign manager said as much. And by the way, McCain's ad attacking Obama for creating a "good touch bad touch" program so grade school children can know when they're being molested, and phrasing it as "comprehensive sex education" is beyond despicable. It's clear that John McBush is pro-molestation.

Gary R. Welsh said...

After Obama referred to Palin as a pig with lipstick, he said this in clear reference to McCain:

“You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still gonna stink.”
“We’ve had enough of the same old thing.”

There's that "old" word again. Obama is a very bright man. He chooses his words carefully. He knows exactly what he is saying.

Downtown Indy said...

Vox, you're pretending to be stupid. Clearly, the 'pitbull with lipstick' soundbite got a whole bunch of airplay in the past week, THEN Obama let's loose with his lipstick remark. Surely you can't believe that is purely coincidental or that it wasn't directed at Palin specifically.

It's not just WHAT you say, it's also significant WHEN you say it.

Vox Populi said...

Here's your celebrity candidate on SNL making Obama's argument for him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB8iVgviw9w

Downtown Indy said...

Oh no! A show know for its political satire airing a bit of political satire! A political candidate having a little harmless fun. What's the world coming to?

Dominic said...

This is a classic case of the media and apparently bloggers taking a sound bite out of context. the first thing I thought about this morning when I saw the today show was "what context is he using that phrase" and unfortunately you don't get that information on the Today show. Even here you'll see people jumping to conclusions based off a sound bite. Sorry but 1+2 does not = 4 people.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/09/turns-out-dick-cheney-knows-ab.html

mackenzie197 said...

Folks, it doesn't matter what the intent was. Any political advisor would have cringed when he heard Obama and Biden make their lipstick remarks following Palin's famous remark.

Even if no harm was meant, in this soundbite world, their remarks are going to be misinterpreted and used against Obama and Biden. You can debate what they intended, but the remarks were extremely boneheaded and harmful...and that's all that matters.

Covenant60 said...

I just hope that Obama keeps talking. The more he talks, the better it is for McCain/Palin.

BTW, isn't it kinda ironic that while McCain/Palin are appearing before wildly enthusiastic crowds numbering over 10,000 at a time, Obama is plodding over his material in front of a couple hundred people in small venues?

I am sure that will change, but wow. You'd think it would be the other way around.

mackenzie197 said...

Vox,

Here's a dollar, buy a clue. The fact is the "pig" comments you quote were not made following the very famous line in Palin's speech. That makes all the difference in the world in terms of how those post-Palin pig comments will be taken. Please try to be more intellectually honest on here. You know better.

Anonymous said...

Gary - You're downright not telling the truth in saying that Obama referred to Palin in the comment. I kindly ask you to apologize, because you're wrong and it is degrading to you to put it this way.

As a point of reference, I just pulled these from the CBS News story on the comment.


"I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." – John McCain, in reference to Hillary Clinton's health care plan, last year.

"George Bush has given a mission to General Petraeus, and he has done his best to try to figure out how to put lipstick on a pig." – Barack Obama, last year.

"Or as we say out in our home state of Wyoming, you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig, but it's still a pig." – Dick Cheney, 2004.

"It's all about withdrawal or not withdrawal, okay? I mean that's what it's all about. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." – John McCain, last year.

Thanks. Troy

Gary R. Welsh said...

No apologies, Troy. As I pointed out, the "lipstick on a pig" comment was immediately followed by an "old fish wrapped in new paper" who still stinks comment by Obama. You all said the same thing when he used his middle finger while mentioning Hillary's name, with his thinly-veiled comment about her being on the rag again and his constant references to McCain's age. He knows exactly what he's saying. He'll get no benefit of the doubt from me.

Pat R said...

McCain has become quite the politician since he got his party's nomination... he has proven time and again that his strategy for winning is based on personal attacks and distracting people from the main issues