I want to congratulate Senator Obama for handing the Republicans a truly awesome line of attack with his “lipstick on a pig” insult. In fact, few presidential candidates have acted as stupidly as Obama the last fortnight, although John Kerry’s late summer silence when the Swift boaters attacked comes pretty close. Or maybe Michael Dukakis’s entire campaign.
The fact of the matter is that Barack Obama and the Democrats haven’t a clue what to do about Sarah Palin. Virtually every time they open their mouths about her, they stick their foot so far down their own throats, they initiate the gag reflex. The little lady from small town USA who is morphing into Everywoman before our eyes (minus Steinem feminists and super-partisans) has the best political minds in the Democratic party well and truly flummoxed, paralyzed with fear or so angry they go off half cocked and say something incredibly dumb.
What a sight it is to behold.
And now Obama, without meaning to, has slit his own wrists with a poorly chosen metaphor for the McCain-Palin idea of change while his running mate, with equally bad judgement, seemed to bring little Trig Palin into a political debate over stem cell research.
First Obama’s gaffe:
Obama poked fun of McCain and Palin’s new “change” mantra.“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said as the crowd cheered. “It’s still a pig.”
“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.”
I actually prefer the “pig in a prom dress is still a pig” metaphor but that’s because I’m partial to sleeveless frocks worn by teenage nymphs whose nubile bodies are silhouetted so alluringly in the moonlight on prom night.
(There I go again.)
Did he or didn’t he? Did he actually refer to Palin as a pig? The press, playing it right down the middle, are giving Obama the benefit of the doubt as are some conservatives like Ambinder.
For me, the context is ambiguous enough that at the very least, Obama can shield himself with a “plausible deniability” defense.
But then there’s that second line about “old” fish stinking. One analogy that serves the dual purpose of hitting McCain’s “change” argument and trashing Palin might be defended as Obama simply using an idiom he has used before and that McCain has even employed in the past as Ambinder shows.
But Marc ignores the second metaphorical swipe by Obama about old stinking fish. Taken together it is hard for a reasonable person to come away with any other conclusion than the Obama campaign sliming first Palin and then McCain with schoolyard epithets.
In the end, it really doesn’t matter what he meant. The crowd certainly thought they knew what he was talking about when they roared their approval at the insult. And the McCain campaign came out immediately with a response:
The McCain campaign is holding a conference call with former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, who is calling on Barack Obama to apologize to Sarah Palin for his “lipstick on a pig” comment. “We need to continually combat this stream of insults,” Swift said, referring specifically to “what I can only deem to be disgraceful comments comparing our vice presidential nominee, Gov. Palin, to a pig.”Reporters were a bit skeptical that Obama intended to do that; from the sketchy reports we have, he seemed to be talking about how John McCain can claim to represent change but isn’t really an agent of change. But Swift said, “it’s pretty clear the crowd thought that that was the insult he was leveling.” And Swift made the (hopefully) undeniable observation that Palin is the only one of the four national candidates who wears lipstick.
The Obama people tried vainly to stamp out the brush fire:
Enough is enough. The McCain campaign’s attack tonight is a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy – the same analogy that Senator McCain himself used about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plan just last year. This phony lecture on gender sensitivity is the height of cynicism and lays bare the increasingly dishonorable campaign John McCain has chosen to run.
I don’t necessarily think the McCain campaign is playing a “gender card” but rather they appeared to be responding to the base insult of calling someone a pig. After all, Swift never brought up gender in her critique. She specifically referenced Palin as “our Vice Presidential candidate.” Perhaps the unspoken subtext was that Obama had been sexist but the McCain campaign quite cleverly left that to the imagination. Women will be offended because Obama supposedly called Palin a pig. They don’t need a set of instructions to get mad at someone already accused of running a sexist campaign against Hillary Clinton.
Indeed, the McCain camp already have a 30 second commercial on Obama’s double entendre in the can:
It didn’t take Team McCain long to develop a new television spot from Barack Obama’s “lipstick on a pig” comment. They have rolled out this 30-second spot hammering Obama for his sexism, using a Katie Couric quote to remind viewers of Obama’s allegedly sexist campaign against Hillary Clinton. They also note that while Obama isn’t ready to lead, he seems ready to smear:
Ditto Joe Biden who actually seemed to bring the Palin’s Down Syndrome baby into a political argument or at the very least challenge Palin’s deeply held beliefs:
“I hear all this talk about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have … the joy and the difficulty of raising a child who has a developmental disability,” said Biden…. “Well guess what folks? If you care about it, why don’t you support stem cell research?”
Leave aside Biden’s monumental ignorance of the science of stem cell research, this is dishonest and slimy on its face. Allah at Hot Air:
He’s not going after Trig, he’s going after Palin for a position she’s taken on a specific policy issue. Compare and contrast with the media’s descent on Bristol Palin last week, which had nothing to do with policy – Palin’s stance on abstinence education was a fig leaf they reached for afterwards – and everything to do with proving that Palin’s a bad mom. I’m with Ambinder on this one, though: It’s worse than a crime, it’s a mistake. For one thing, in true Biden fashion, it’s clumsily phrased. Presumably he means embryonic stem-cell research, not stem-cell research generally; putting it the way he did leaves McCain open to remind centrists that he supports ESCR and Palin open to tout alternatives to the embryonic approach to take control of the issue. For another thing, even partisans as unhinged as Sullivan have felt obliged to praise her for her commitment to life in carrying Trig to term knowing his condition. It’s one of the strongest testaments to her character in her biography. All this does is push that fact back in front of voters. But beyond that, his question is simply stupid and easily answered: She doesn’t support ESCR because she believes in life at conception and isn’t willing to sacrifice it even to help her own son. Unlike Joe Biden, of course, who also claims to believe in life at conception and yet seems willing to sacrifice it at every opportunity.
It boggles the mind that they allow Joe Biden out and about without a muzzle and a handler whose job is to switch off the mike whenever Biden deviates from the script. The guy is a walking, talking gaffe machine and if anyone was paying any attention to what he says, he would probably be in even more hot water.
But Biden’s head exploding gaffe is just a sympton of what ails the Obama campaign. They are off balance, tentative, and clueless when it comes to strategizing a counter to Palin and her popularity which has hit the presidential campaign like a sudden thunderstorm and thrown everything out of whack. And the McCain camp, finally running on all cylinders and demonstrating a competence no one expected from it just a few months ago, is laying the wood to Obama and Biden for every misstep they make. They are making them pay – in spades. (Pardon the idiom but as Obama says, everyone uses it.)
Can they right the ship in time to make a run? Of course they can. It’s only September and we’ve got a long way to go. And Palin is a rookie who will probably be prone to making a few gaffes here and there once she starts doing interviews and participates in the VP debate next month. But already it appears that some states they once thought competitive like North Carolina (McCain +20) and states they believed in the bag like Wisconsin (Obama +3) have changed with the altered dynamics of the race supplied by Palin.
The Obama campaign will never be able to get back the time they have lost with their scattershot, ineffective, and ultimately self defeating attacks on Palin. And in the end, that might spell the difference between victory and defeat.
11:33 am
Forgetting McCain said “lipstick on a pig” in reference to Hillary? Watch it here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR8IhMMhe8w
RepubliCONs can’t run on the issues, so they make up slights and whine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLgm1I8bVVE
You are in shill mode now, Rick!
Read the fucking post. I say that McCain has used the idiom before. And if you’re not going to read the post before commenting, you will be banned. Period.
ed.
11:40 am
Congratulations to America, and God’s own Republican party. You just got another vote!
My aunt: “I’m voting for Palin.”
Me: “But she’s not… er.. Why?”
Aunt: “She has a cute voice, and I like her hair.”
Me: “What about the issues?”
Aunt: “What issues?”
Me: “What about McCain?”
Aunt: “The other guy?”
Me: “Goodlord. Nevermind.”
11:46 am
On behalf of pigs everywhere,I am highly incensed by BOH’s “pig” remark.
~ A ~
11:49 am
Melanie, did McCain use the pig comment just a few days after Hillary had compared herself to a pig? No? Didn’t think so.
11:59 am
Race Man: How Barack Obama played the race card and blamed Hillary Clinton.
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=aa0cd21b-0ff2-4329-88a1-69c6c268b304
12:14 pm
You’re a dick, Moran, lipstick or no.
12:38 pm
Obama has a simple, tried and true way out of this that he is too arrogant or addle-pated to use: “I wish to apologize for the way in which some have misinterpreted my remarks.”
12:39 pm
“Read the fucking post. I say that McCain has used the idiom before. And if you’re not going to read the post before commenting, you will be banned. Period.”
Ahhhh, Rick is back. You go, man.
As incompetent as the Obama camp’s responses seem (are), in fairness, they truly are f*cked no matter what they do- the Palin choice usurps their “change” mantra, excites the base, pulls in PUMA’s, pulls in independent women, and gives guys like me a hard-on.
One more thing: I hate to say “I told you so” (okay, actually I love it), but my comment #1 from http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2008/08/29/obamas-speech-not-bad-at-all/#comments said:
“But I disagree with you about his bounce. I predict the polls will be even, or McCain ahead by 2 to 3 by mid-September- the Palin choice will solidify the conservative base (I am dancing a jig right now over Palin), and she will draw in a LOT of women voters.”
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, huh?
12:50 pm
Another ‘inartful’ comment from Obama. The reaction I’m seeing to it splits straight down gender lines:
Guys: ‘He wasn’t referring to her—everybody uses that phrase anyway. I do.’
Women: ‘I’ve heard it all before.’
I think maybe this one won’t go away for Obama. If McCain and Co are real smart they’ll get the rights to Miss Piggy from sesame Street and riff on this super-obvious smear all fall…
12:51 pm
The McCain campaign is “competent”? All they have done is resort to Rovian smears to get the job done. It’s all so cravenly cynical that I’m suprised you haven’t seen through it?
Would a competent campaign accuse Obama of backing a bill teaching comprehensive Sex Ed to Kindergartners? http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/margaret_talev/story/52169.html
While you are correct that the Democrats are still flummoxed by Palin, shouldn’t you be more concerned about Palin’s impact on a possible Presidency?
Why haven’t you commented on her outstanding lack of experience, her hardline evangelical views, or her love of executive privelige?
Why haven’t I commented? Get your own damn blog and write it yourself.
ed.
12:54 pm
Not only has McCain used it, but so has Dick Cheney. There’s a book written a few years back, that also uses that same phrase in its title.
If Palin can call herself a pit-bull with lipstick, then what’s the difference between a pit-bull or a pig with lip-stick…..
Palin set the stage by opening her stupid mouth; tried to be ‘clever and cute’, and now it’s time for some of her rude remarks and innuendo to boomerang back to her. She thinks she can cry ‘foul’ and play the ‘oh poor me, you picked on a woman’, when she wants to, but she wants to hold a position in this government where that simply isn’t going to work.
She is a ‘pig-in-a-poke’; she is a wolf in sheep’s clothing – she is a lying manipulative female who has bullied her way far too long.
I’m glad Obama kept it just to a pig and stinking fish because I’ve heard (and read) the words of hundreds, and I’d say Sarracuda Moosellini got of easy…........
12:59 pm
The fact he used the idiom “lipstick on a pig” so soon after Governor Palin had used “lipstick” in describing the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom says it all. It was a deliberate attempt to demean a popular governor who has managed to energize the conservative base in a way only RWR could have managed.
1:18 pm
pardon the pun, “the skirts are off”, it seems even the press have finally said “game time” to obama, not to say they won’t resume the obama propaganda machine tomorrow… but it is so fun to see the messiah not just get a pass on this gaffee. wonderful writing rick, keep it up.
1:25 pm
Ed,
I meant no disrespect towards you or your views. I initally started reading your blog when you wrote about 24, and have stuck around long past that. Generally speaking, I’ve agreed with your views and reasons behind them and specifically enjoy the posts that take a broader more historical perspective.
When Palin was selected and all the blogs were either demonizing or deifying her I was looking forward to your response. Almost two weeks later, and you still haven’t voiced your own personal opinion about her. I’m just curious here… why the hesitation?
Lastly, I really should write more about politics.
1:30 pm
This year’s election has been the best entertainment seen in many, many years in my opinion. Every day is a new hubbub and controversy. What more could you ask for? A circus?
1:40 pm
Okay, I’m an idiot. I meant to say “Rick” instead of “Ed”.
1:51 pm
The “herds” are stampeding, the dust billows, the hooves thunder… media-driven SOS.
This country is starving for inspirational leaders with substance… Sarah Palin has potential. John McCain had the insight to see that…
Obama’s biggest problem… the suspicion he is the candidate, due to and dependent on, a continuing media drive to present him as “all things, to all people”...
1:53 pm
Obama is so entertaining! He sure knows how to attract those female voters back to the Obama camp with charming comments like this, doesn’t he? LOL.
I’m thinking maybe a left-wing campaign staffer of his thought this line would be a good anecdote to Palin’s popular pitbull/hockeymom line, and Obama just went along with it and delivered it in his speech, like a sheep to the slaughter. I couldn’t imagine Obama thinking of a subtle savvy attack plan against a hockey mom himself (much less a rogue terrorist nation). You have to wonder how naive do you have to be to think that a line like this would be a good idea? everyday he does or says something that shows how naive he is. His comments don’t end here however. Just look at how many times he’s changed his mind on issues, and changed his positions once he realized most people thought it reflected how naive he was (case in point: agreeing to talk to rogue nations without preconditions, or the whole J. Wright fiasco). I just wouldn’t be comfortable with someone like that being the leader of the free world. Make a decision, and make it the right one the first time. Don’t stand there blubbering waiting for your advisors to tell you what to say and do.
2:02 pm
So whats all of the hullabaloo.
Obama called Palin a pig and said that McCain smells like a stinky fish.
Let Obama be Obama, it’s not like he is the only sexist pig in the USA.
2:10 pm
Rick,
Fantastic post. I was wondering why Obama would use this particular wording so close to Palin’s use of the “Hockey mom/pit bull/lipstick” remark. The fact that Obama’s comment follows so close on the heels of Palin’s comment during her speech makes it all suspect. In my post, Obama’s “Lipstick on a Pig”: Insult or Idiom?, I tried to give a “fair-and-balanced” assessment to his statement. However, the more I read and listen to clips of the speech, the more I wonder if it was a cold a calculated attempt to smear the Republican campaign.
I do think, however, that both campaigns need to stop with the personal attacks (more Obama camp than McCain camp) and focus on the issues. I, for one, am getting very weary of it.
2:14 pm
There is a most unwelcome parallel to John McCain, a man whom I could have voted for a year ago, and yourself.
McCain descends from decency to a slim-driven campaign. Moran descends from smart issues-oriented blogging to masturbating in print over a woman who is eminently unqualified.
Get back to the issues, Rick, before you too lose your soul.
Palin is a sideshow, a distraction, the political equivalent of a three ring circus. I write about her because her rise is fascinating and the way the dems are flailing about trying to deal with her is entertaining.
I find it fascinating to read those who complain about how unqualified the VP candidate is for the GOP and yet not a peep about the most unqualified presidential candidate in the history of the republic.
There is nothing you could say that could give Obama even the patina of legitimacy as a presidential candidate. There is absolutely nothing in his career that distinguishes him one iota above the ordinary except perhaps his speaking ability which is hardly a “qualification” in any sense of the word. His communication skills are abominable as evidenced by his stumbling, fumbling appearances on the talk shows where he is almost incoherent.
You apparently have already lost your soul if you think that two bit Chicago hustler is qualified for president or vice president. And I find it laughable that the arguement is even being made that Palin is less qualified than Barack Obama.
ed.
2:35 pm
Shaun, I love those arguments (Palin unqualified)...
Palin- 8 years of executive experience (mayor, governor)
Obama- 0 years of executive experience, but campaigned for president for 19 months.
Palin- running for vice president
Obama- running for president
Palin- unqualified for vice president?
Obama- unqualified for president.
Keep making that argument.
2:51 pm
One could brush off the “pig” comment if you didn’t bother to watch the video and see not only the body language of Obama at the moment he said it, but the fact that his audience clearly understood who he was talking about. So if supporters of Palin are to be considered stupid for not realizing that Obama made a simple “mis-step”, then can we also assume that his supporters are also stupid for assuming the same thing? Then follow this up with the “old fish” comment and add the comment “8 years”. Ummm, gaffe? Or deliberate?
Seems Obama got a pass on another incident that was similar. He was talking about Hillary, reached up with his middle finger and scratched his face while giving a pause in his speech? Again, his audience understood what he was doing; giving Hillary the bird. Or does Obama draw audiences that are too stupid to understand what he says and what he does? That is not a very complimentary view of his audience, now is it?
Add to that Biden’s comments on the same day. Coordination? Accident?
Sorry, all you Obama supporters. The “pig” comment was NOT a gaffe. It was a calculated attempt to ridicule Palin for her “pit bull” statement. And it backfired. Perhaps Senator Obama should stick to the words being projected on the teleprompter or get another speech writer? It doesn’t seem he does too well when he is unprompted.
Dirty politics coming from the Rovian brain of David Alexrod? Say it isn’t so. Say that the Obama campaign would never use smear against an opponent of Senator Obama’s. Like filing FOIA law suits to get his opponent’s divorce records unsealed. Nah, Obama would never do anything like that.
2:56 pm
Retire05, good insight about Obama needing to stick to the teleprompter. But then he runs the danger of a “Ron Burgundy” moment!
3:02 pm
retire05,
Good point. I think you’re right Palin was probably chosen because she is a seemingly easy target at first glance. Then people realize that dealing with her is like answering the question, “did you beat your wife yet?” There is no right answer because she’s just so darn cute.
The brilliance of the Palin pick is that there is discourse on policy. There is no more talk about the economy, war, health care, etc. If that were the case, Obama would still be in the lead. Now, can anyone tell me where she gets those frames for her glasses?
Well played, Republicans! I can hardly wait for the next four years of awesomeness. In light of my recent observations and readings, I have determined that the United States of America deserves John McCain and Sarah Palin.
My biggest fear is a McCain victory that would short circuit party reform. If the price of getting rid of the deadwood and purging the over-religiosity is a McCain defeat, I would almost settle for that.
Too bad the dems had to run such a candidate as Obama – who not only is clearly unqualified but a man whose foriegn policy stupidity could ignite World War III.
ed.
3:19 pm
That distant roaring sound you hear is Bill and Hil laughing themselves legless.
“2012 here we come!”
3:22 pm
It seems the entire “Lipstick on a Pig” story may have been, at least in part, a diversion to take interest away from the the discovery by the NYT that Obama worked on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.
The piece is considered “unusually deceptive” and an excellent example of “propaganda” by those familiar with his efforts there, but it could simply be that the writer, Sam Dillon, is primarily a writer about education and unfamiliar with the political implications of the story.
Unexplored was why Obama seems to have left out this job from his resume. Considering Obama has been taking a pummeling for not having any executive experience, this would be an excellent comeback for Obama to all those complaints by McCain and Palin.
3:29 pm
[...] Right Wing Nut House » I PREFER THE ‘PROM DRESS’ ANALOGY MYSELF [...]
3:40 pm
Obama was wrong to call Sarah a pig. Pigs are known to be very intelligent animals.
3:54 pm
I think I just got sprayed with leftie flop sweat.
3:57 pm
Obama has definitely “jumped the snark.”
4:02 pm
“Too bad the dems had to run such a candidate as Obama”
If Dems are so much smarter than Republicans, how could they have chosen Obama, the weakest candidate from their field? How could they abandon Dean after a single set back and jumped in Kerry’s arms – a Massachusatts liberal?
The Republicans picked Bush over McCain in 2000 – hard to say if McCain would have beaten Gore (game theory – would Gore have run away from the 90s vs a Washington guy?). And now the Republicans picked the only guy from their possible nominees that might win in November.
4:49 pm
Rick:
Save your pissing for the toilet. I never said that Obama was more qualified than Palin.
I care about you.
Hell, I really like you.
I have respected your native intelligence and due diligence and have linked to you from my blog regularly.
This is why what I DID say is that you are fast losing your soul because of your worshipful embrace of the houseof mirrors in a seamy carnival sideshow.
5:18 pm
Rick, you make an interesting point above that I’d like to discuss further. You seem to imply that if McCain/Palin wins this election, it might be detrimental to the Republican party in the long run.
A win could conceivably validate the past eight years of foreign/domestic policy, as well as the current (evangelical) base of the party. It might prevent the party from cleaning house and being ‘conservative’ once again. Whatever that actually means anymore.
That’s a fascinating take on this. I’ve always thought that if Republicans acted like Republicans, I’d probably be one. If McCain/Palin wins, the chance to rework the party might be lost for a very long time. Good Lord this stuff is mind numbing.
I know most Republicans don’t really like McCain. They sorta feel like they pretty much have to go with him because everyone else sucked worse. But, as for Palin, I can’t tell if Republicans like her because she’s a hot milf that the Dems are freaking out about, or because of whatever policy it is she stands for. It seems like half of the criticism that’s been applied to Obama could easily be applied to her tenfold.
Again, well done for the Republicans, at least for the short term.
7:05 pm
Snarky comments from politicans running for office are to be expected. My concern is that I have no presidential candidate to vote for. Sen. Obama is an overreaching back bencher who talks about change but proposes regression to 1960’s liberalism. John McCain is a soulless old fart that stands for nothing certain, as he was swapped positions more often that a porn star. I first voted for president (Nixon,if you must know) 36 years ago and I have not missed an election since. So far this year, staying home is the only honorable option to be seen.
7:24 pm
Hey, we finally find out that Obama did head the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, where he oversaw the spending of $150 million to improve the public schools of Chicago, but had little impact.
Given that this is his only executive experience, it’s easy to see why Obama perfers leave it off his resume and just take a pummeling for not having any executive experience, rather than admit he headed a failure.
7:25 pm
Mr. Tucson, you are almost correct… you say most Republicans don’t like McCain, but the truth is, most conservatives don’t like him (if it was Republicans that did not like him, he would not be the nominee). However, like reversing one’s position on a bridge to nowhere after getting all the facts, most of us conservatives have reversed our position on McCain after seeing him tip his hat to conservatives (with a Palin selections versus Lieberman), but more importantly, because of his absolute, resolute commitment to appointing strict constructionist jurists as SCOTUS appointments, acknowledging that the immigration reform was improper before securing our borders (i.e. enforcing existing laws), and his commitment to tax cuts on investments and corporations. He has made all of these, very public commitments, and unlike prior “pure politicians”, we believe that he is a man of his word.
But after that brilliant exegesis, I’m going to f-it all up by admitting that you are also right about her being a pretty hot milf (or more correctly, a v-pilf).
7:43 pm
It should be apparent by now: Obama can’t think for himself. There’s no there there. He is spouting off the typical taking points that have been exhausted on the Sunday shows these many years.
The only thing different about the Dem candidate is that it’s a different person from that last Dem saying the same well-worn bromides from the Sunday talk shows.
9:40 pm
About those Swiftboat guys…
Kerry knew about the Swiftboat guys before the convention, if for no other reason than they’d shown up at his prior elections. In fact, before the election, he tried to buy them off.
Strangely, in spite of knowing that they were lurking in the wings, he lead with the utterly… stupid? ballsy? arrogant?.. tact of “Captain Kerry reporting for duty” at the DNC Convention.
When Kerry leads with his chin, he leads with a lot, and he certainly set himself up for a huge fall on that one. He got one chance to leave a lasting impression to the American people in that convention, and no sooner than he left that impression the Swift Boat guys killed it.
10:40 pm
“Presumably he means embryonic stem-cell research, not stem-cell research generally; putting it the way he did leaves McCain open to remind centrists that he supports ESCR and Palin open to tout alternatives to the embryonic approach to take control of the issue.”
AND PALIN WOULD BE RIGHT.
Scientists have been able to fully develop adult stem cells into other cell types. Breakthroughs have now obviated what was a bio-ethics dilemma. We should move beyond human-embryo-killing stem cell research and utilizes these advances. We dont need to destroy human life in order to study it. Biden, as usual, is AWOL from current reality.
10:45 pm
“John McCain is a soulless old fart that stands for nothing certain”
That is perhaps the most wrong thing you could say about John McCain as anything.
The man stood by his support of the surge when nobody else in Congress was willing to throw their careers away on Iraq.
He may be wrong about somethings (like immigration) but he stands where he stands.
Country First – vote McCain.
11:43 pm
Frankly, I dislike it when any politician plays the victim card. This is nothing more than a bit of hyped-up over-sensitivity. Obama and Hillary played this mantra early every day during the primary, and it appears to have risen its ugly head again. God help us all…
2:17 am
John McCain had a reputation as a man of honor. The Lipstick on a pig ad and the sex ed ad released by the McCain campaign show that McCain has lost its moral compass. All politician exaggerate their record and fudge the facts a little, but John McCain in these ads is doing far more than that. He is just lying, plain and simple. He has an army of surrogate talking heads that will go on TV and scream the lie as loud and often as they can, but it is still a lie. Another army of mindless bloggers will repeat the lie all over the web, but it does not matter how many times you repeat a lie, it is still a lie.
A man who is reduced to straight out lying to get elected clearly can not tell right from wrong. McCain use to be a man of honor, but he has lost his direction. McCain is morally unfit to be president of the United States.
6:42 am
Ok she’s a conservative. Great. Now could someone please tell me just what exactly the “base” got for their loyalty during the 6 years that the GOP held the House,the Senate and the White House. I also find it interesting that the best the GOP could come up with is a Conservative who hasn’t been in government very long. Well I guess that’s because Conservatives don’t stay conservative for very long once they finally get elected. So tell me what’s the “base” going to get from the movement this time?Stooges.
7:02 am
Sarah Palin, laughingly to the press, “I’ve worn plenty of lipstick in my life, but honestly, I don’t ever remember being called a pig before now. Let’s just assume Mr Obama mispoke, because surely a candidate for the President of the United States of America has more maturity than to digress to playground namecalling. Now do any of you want to talk about something important today? Perhaps we could start by thanking Mr Obama for acknowledging lately that his proposals to raise taxes in the middle of difficult economic times would be a dissaster. First question please.”
7:26 am
Please let me add:
The McCain campaign and some Repubs are getting very close to go over the top with their response.
Her convention speech was brilliant, but I haven’t heard anything new from her since the convention. She’s got to show herself to be quick, charming, tough, and, yes, at times brilliant again or the star will fade
7:29 am
Typical of the GOP… They try to divert attention from Palin’s LIE about opposing the bridge to nowhere with a trumped up “insult” that any 6th grader could see through. The needle is absolutely broken off the Republicans’ moral compass. If Americans vote in again the party of hypocrisy, hate and facism, then I guess we deserve the screw job the GOP will continue on us all. And I had such high hopes for America this time around…
8:49 am
Yesterday, Allah raised a fascinating exit question:
From Hot Air: “Exit question via John Judis: We’re all so familiar with McCain’s bio that we take it for granted, but never underestimate how little the general public pays attention to stuff like that until it’s time to vote. Could the POW tributes at the convention be what’s driving Maverick’s surge in the polls?”
It is undeniable that Palin has had a huge impact on enthusiasm of the base, but we may, in fact, be giving her too much credit, or more accurately, not enough credit to McCain’s heroism being discovered.
9:04 am
It has nothing to do with insulting Palin or defending her. It shows that Obama has forgotten that McCain is the real opponent. Obama’s previous strategy of tying McCain to Bush has gone limp, leaving him with no apparent plan. So he resorts to a grade school taunt. Name calling will not win this election.
11:03 am
I just recently visited amerika and was actually astonished to see the number of SUV’s, large trucks, hummers etc. Really. From europe it sounds like the call has gone out to get rid of those things and that people would give them up simply for their own financial benefit. Then the Palin thing broke and I smugly said “She’ll be gone in a week.” With the huge mess of the Bush years STILL HERE, I simply can’t believe that this country is dumb enough to elect Bush-lite. Can you imagine president Palin wrangling with Putin or some other competent, experienced world leader? Back to guns, god, abortion and gays in THIS election?
?!? Jaw-droppingly incredible. amerika will get what it apparently deserves and I’m staying in Turkey. Good luck.
12:45 pm
” . . . amerika will get what it apparently deserves and I’m staying in Turkey.”
Don’t let the door hit you on the ss on your way out. See Ya, Dipsht!
5:08 pm
Boy,boy,boy Rick!! You’ve really made it now. Istanbruce has entered the room.
9:40 pm
Frankly, I am quite indignant about all these comments and implied insults comparing Sarah Palin to a pig.
What’d the poor pigs do??
~ A ~
5:37 am
Friday Morning Links…
Snobbery. But Palin does good with Charlie Gibson. Was it a press quiz?Socialism and lazinessA media darling.Is Palin a female?Mugabe is a hero!What’s the matter with Michigan?Backgounds of those in CongressRove is right!I prefer the prom dress. RWN…
11:46 am
I cannot believe that more bloggers and media haven’t made a bigger deal about the “smell like a fish” comment. Women just absolutely hate to be told they smell like a fish. That perhaps is the most ultimate insult Obama has made so far and it is completely unreported. However, I will bet the women have taken notice….oh my.