McCain Campaign and Lipstick

Posted on September 10th, 2008 by ecthompson md



Lipstick on a pig has been a fairly common phrase in Washington. Governor Sarah Palin didn’t invent the phrase and she doesn’t have a copyright on it either. So, this is another example of the McCain campaign trying to distract voters from the issues.

Tags: Election 2008 // 10 Comments »

  • Mark

    EC,

    Agree with you here. Senator Obama probably meant nothing by his statement, although it is poor choice of phrase given some of the rhetoric and a lipstick joke or two from the Democrats.

    But the McCain camp is feigning outrage over nothing and is takes away from constructive discussion.

  • http://n/a Bill

    Call me a conspiracy theorist. I believe Obama’s lipstick quote was intentional, and was a well placed trap that McCain fell right into.

    Probably over thinking it. Either way it is not that big a deal.

    I cannot see the video for some reason.

  • Chris

    I think I disagree with Mark here… a little.

    I am not sold that Obama knew what his comment referred to when he gave it. Watching the actual video of the statement, he just launched right into it, but staggered when he realized exactly what had transpired. The crowd let him know.

    The crowd reaction is telling. As soon as he finished the word “lipstick” they HOWLED. Obama might not have meant it to be derogatory towards Governor Palin, but that was exactly how the crowd took it.

    Further, her “lipstick” comment was one of the most played comments from her convention speech, and I’d put money on the idea that Obama’s speech that day was prepared beforehand. You can’t tell me that someone in his campaign didn’t know that that’s how the comment would be taken.

    Again, on the surface, this isn’t a real big deal. I’m sure, along the course of her career, Mrs. Palin has been called worse things by better people. She’s a tough chick, and she’ll survive. Hell, if I were her, I wouldn’t have taken offense to it in the first place.

    But, if I am correct in my impressions/assumptions, then it seems that Obama either didn’t read his speech before he gave it, or was simply ignorant of the comments effects. What is troubling me is the idea that the latter is the more likely scenario, simply because Obama must have memorized at least SOME of his speech and therefore would have seen the speech before he gave it.

    The questions that immediately pop into mind include: What happens when he makes an off the cuff , or prepared, statement to the Russians/Putin? Is he going to be more careful in his comments to Ahmedinejad? Are his speech-writers more responsible for his statements than Obama himself?

    Further, this has raised questions, at least in my mind, as to the intentions of his campaign staff. The comment was ill-advised at best, insulting at worst, and completely antithetical to the “change” that Obama has been selling himself on for the last year and a half.

  • http://www.whereistheoutrage.net ecthompson

    Bill –

    That’s a stretch, IMHO.

  • http://www.whereistheoutrage.net ecthompson

    Chris –

    Really? Are you serious? Obama appears to you to be reckless speaker? Or is he extremely deliberate in what he says?

    I’m sorry. I can’t go with you there. Here’s Obama’s whole phrase – Let’s just list this for a second. John McCain says he’s about change, too. Except — and so I guess his whole angle is, “Watch out, George Bush, except for economic policy, health-care 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 some — the same thing, something different. But you know, you can — you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig.

    So, how can you confuse that? The McCain camp deliberately tried to twist his words into something that they weren’t. The McCain camp was hoping that the press would run with their ad and not be critical (their usual behavior). The McCain camp was hoping that they could force Obama to spend 24 – 48 hours defending his comment and no getting his message out there. Obama’s comment was neither ill advised nor insulting. It is clear that Barack Obama was talking about John McCain’s tactic of trying to label himself as an agent of change.

    Thanks for your comments.

  • margaret

    This is sooo nuts that they are talking about this comment. How many more companies is the government going to bail out? How many more homes are going to be taken?.How many jobless people will there be on November 11? I personally think the republicans are embarrassed by the fact that McCain picked this person as the best to help him lead the country. There are far better people he could have picked. The truth about Palin dealings is coming out and they have no other way to defend her.

  • Chris

    Doc:

    You can’t tell me that Obama was blissfully unaware that Palin had made a statement comparing herself to a lipstick wearing pitbull. SOMEONE in his campaign watched her whole speech, and I’d bet dollars to donuts that Obama heard her lipstick comment.

    Taking this as true, there are really only two conclusions to draw here:

    1) That Obama didn’t know or mean for the comment to be offensive to Palin. This suggests that Obama isn’t as great a speaker as he is purported to be, as he isn’t aware of how the word “lipstick”, used less than a week after Palin’s comment, would refer to Palin.

    That’s the best case scenario.

    The other scenario is:

    2) That Obama was fully aware he was making a comparison of the Gov. of Alaska to a pig. This suggests that he said those things on PURPOSE, and meant them as they were taken by the crowd. This also suggests that Obama is capable of smearing his opponent, an idea that I am sure Democrats and leftists will abhor and deny.

    And yet, there it is. The only way Obama doesn’t look bad is if he had no idea about Palin’s speech, and that just makes him look unprepared… not a quality of a President I would vote for.

    If you have some other ideas here Doc, I’d love to hear them.

  • http://www.whereistheoutrage.net ecthompson

    Chris –

    None of your scenarios are truly plausible when you look at everything in context Senator Obama was talking about John McCain’s tenure in the Senate and he listed a series of his policies which were more of the same. He then ended that section of his speech with “lipstick on a pig.”

    Yes, I think that Senator Obama was very much aware of Sarah Palin’s pit bull comment. He is also very much aware that John McCain had used the same phrase.

    Watch the video. the video is clear.

    Thanks for your comments.

  • Chris

    So, Doc, youre saying that Obama knew the lipstick comment would refer to Palin in a negative manner?

    Isn’t that mudslinging? How can you complain about the McCain camp and their “slurs” against the Obama, while supporting this comment? Doesn’t that smack of hypocrisy?

    Either its ok for everyone, or not ok for everybody, Doc.

  • http://www.whereistheoutrage.net ecthompson

    Nope. I’m saying that he was aware that the comment and similar comments had been made. I’m also saying that you are barking up the wrong tree. This is just like when he scratched his face and the media with help from the Clinton camp were saying that he flipped off Hillary.

    this is about message discipline. This is about getting to the White House. Doing something stupid like calling Palin a name isn’t helping the cause. It would be a stupid move which it another reason why it didn’t help.

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