2008
Re: The Pig
Charles, although you and I agree on much about Sarah Palin and Obama, I must respectfully disagree with you on this point: Saying the McCain campaign is trying to put “lipstick on a pig” is neither “brilliant” nor “devious.” (It isn’t sexist, either, but that’s obvious from viewing Obama’s quote, which includes no mention of Palin, in context*). Witness: McCain himself used the exact same cliche to describe Hillary Clinton’s health care proposal just a few months ago. “I think they put some lipstick on a pig,” he said, referring to the similarities between Clinton’s latest health care plan and the one she released in 1993, “but it’s still a pig.”
*”John McCain says he’s about change, too. And, so, I guess his whole angle is: Watch out, George Bush. Except for economic policy, healthcare policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy, and Karl Rove-style politics, we’re really gonna shake things up in Washington. That’s not change. That’s just calling something, the same thing, something different. But, you know, you can’t—you can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig.”
Comments (7)
Tom Tomorrow:
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/08/26/tomo/
Posted by chicagogaydude | September 11, 2008 11:09 AMRemember when we had Ross Perot on TV every day saying "Ya cain't honrswoggle a chicken with tea kettle if ya ain't ready to dirty up yer britches!" and "As we say in Texas, for every chitlen there's a dab of pig swill that ain't gonna churn itself!"
That shit could mean anything. Even Ross didn't know what he was saying. So the McCain campaign could have projected any meaning they wanted, and who could argue?
Posted by elenchos | September 11, 2008 11:11 AMi think the assumption is that obama made the lipstick reference knowing the republicans would take it completely out of context as a sexist remark and blow up a non-story into front page news. this gave obama the opportunity to clarify his remarks on a much larger scale, linking mccain's economic policy to bush's.
if you believe that was an intentional strategy, then you can call it brilliant. but if you think it was just a poor choice of words, then it's just a poor choice of words that has arguably turned in his favor.
Posted by brandon | September 11, 2008 11:18 AMWhat's funniest about it is that the remark drew McCain to unleash their entire sad bag of greasy tricks in mid September. It lanced a boil that might have caused some discomfort in, say, late October.
Posted by Just Sayin' | September 11, 2008 11:58 AMPerhaps it's not "sexist", but you can't deny it's certainly "swinist".
And for the record, I would like to respectfully point out, I WAS THE FIRST to make the "lipstick/pig" connection:
(http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/palin_read_to_lead - see comment #22)
a full SIX DAYS before Obama's speech.
Although Senator Obama does me a disservice by not providing proper attribution, I'll let it pass, because I'm just that kind of guy.
And no, the McCain campaign cannot cite my comment as evidence of plagiarism on Obama's part, either.
Posted by COMTE | September 11, 2008 12:33 PMFucking republicans. I think it's likely that Obama intentionally riffed on Palin's "lipstick" line.
But how does that mean he "called her a pig"?
On the other hand, it seems that any time Obama does something that I think is clever and might describe using the word "riff" he is probably not acquiring new voters.
Posted by daniel | September 11, 2008 12:48 PM@1 - Thanks for posting that. Tom Tomorrow, as usual, has hit the nail squarely on the head.
Posted by Geni | September 11, 2008 1:09 PMComments Closed
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