The Guardian
At least you can say it would never have happened had a woman not been running for vice-president: "lipstick" has become a buzzword in US politics. It smeared itself all over the news yesterday when it appeared that Barack Obama was likening Sarah Palin to a farmyard animal: "You can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig," he told a town hall meeting in Lebanon, Virginia. In the wake of the much-aired joke Palin had made about herself during her speech to the Republican convention last week - "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick" - it seemed clear to some that the Democrat was slinging insults at his rival.
Except he wasn't. The "lipstick on a pig" phrase is a fairly commonly used American idiom of long standing, indicating an attempt to jazz up some old goods with a cosmetic tweak. Obama's remarks came in the context of a longer attack on McCain's attempt to position himself as a force for change in Washington. The fuller quote from the Virginia meeting goes, "That's not change. That's just calling the same thing something different. But you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change; it's still going to stink."
Obama used the same phrase, talking about General Petraeus's task in Iraq, in an interview with the Washington Post last year. In April, Elizabeth Edwards (wife of former presidential hopeful John Edwards) used it to describe McCain's health care plan.
Nor do Democrats have sole rights to pig and lipstick-based analogies. Dick Cheney used it about John Kerry in 2004. Torie Clarke, McCain's former press secretary, wrote a book called Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era. And even McCain has called on it, using it last year to attack one of Hillary Clinton's proposed policies: "I think they put some lipstick on a pig," he said, "but it's still a pig."
He must have a short memory, however, because the Republicans wasted no time in taking carefully orchestrated offence at the "gendered" comparison of Palin to a pig. Which, let's not forget, didn't happen. The Obama campaign responded by calling the McCain team "dishonourable".
Now that, my friends, is an insult.
Was Obama out of line? Was it a sexist attack? Has McCain's camp overreacted or is this politics as usual?
13 comments:
No, Obama was not out of line, and this was not a sexist attack. It was simply, "Politics." Obama in no way made a sexist remark when he criticized Sarah Palin, or really he was criticizing the Republican party in general. What Obama said was totally true, you cannot just put new faces in office and expect for there to be change when in fact McCain has many of the same views as President Bush. Suddenly since McCain has a lady as his running mate, he now supposedly is a supporter for women. Not true at all, McCain choosing her as his running mate was more of a publicity stunt. I mean, come on, we all know she is a good speaker but what exactly are her qualifications. This whole thing has been overblown and the republican party is just going to have to learn to deal with all the criticism their opponet will lash out. This is POLITICS people!
Deal with it!
The Republican reaction to Obama's comments is very melodramatic. After choosing Palin as his running mate, McCain lost one of the basis of his argument against Obama; Obama's inexperience. With Palin in the picture, McCain lost one of his calling cards and is pulling out the sexist trick to compensate for this loss. The Republicans chose Palin to potentially win over Hilary supporters but true Hilary supporters would never vote for McCain simply because Palin's a woman. I think that Hilary supporters should be disgusted that the Republican would think that such a cheap trick would work. Although Palin was brought greater popularity for the Republicans, she is not the one running for president. The McCain-Palin ticket has turned into more of a Palin-McCain ticket. We have to remember that it is McCain who is running for president and that he is a Republican just like Bush. McCain claims that he and Palin are going to shake up Washington by implementing change, but how much of this so called change will actually be change? By choosing Palin as his running mate, McCain has created an illusion of so called change. But just because someone tells you that pigs can fly doesn't mean that they actually can.
I don't think it's sexist comments that Obama intended to say... just politics. The fact that they are choosing to take it that way is to spin his words around. Why is Obama suddenly the bad guy? Ever since Palin came into the picture things have turned and I don't think it's not fair just because she is a woman.
I Believe Obama was not trying to make Palin seem like she is a pig but i think that Obama should have thougt a little about what he was trying to say. Because Obama used the idiom everyone is making a big deal about Palin is a Pig, but Obama should have thought about what he was saying. He could have realized that some people might take the comment to the extreme for being naive and incompatible of knowing what an "idiom" is. So for me i don't think that this was an attack against Palin but Obaa could've used different words.
I believe that Obama was out of line. He knew that making that comment would have been heard offensive by Republicans. He could have used any number of phrases that would not have drawn up such a big problem. But instead he chose to use that one and it, in tern, came back to bite him in the but.
I don't think this was a sexist attack at all. Obama was merely using a commonly known phrase. McCain's camp has read so much into this that I think that they are just looking for reasons to act like a victim to Obama's "sexist" statements. C'mon now people, its just a saying.
I watched the clips from both Palin and Obama. From what I saw, Obama was not attacking Palin, just using an adage that supported his claims. The crowd immediately started laughing when Obama said this. It was most likely that they drew a connection between the statements, and found humor in it. Weather or not Obama caught on immediately (and I think by the look on his face, he did); I do not believe that he would out right call Palin a "pig" (or even imply that she was one).
First of all, it does not boost his position in any way to call his opponents VP a pig, and second, he is smart enough to know that it would lead to controversy.
Even Mike Huckabee said that it is silly to think Obama would purposely say this.
I am not an Obama supporter, but I believe that anyone who gets this far in the race for the presidency can not be an unintelligent person. They may have ideas that contrast other peoples, and they may be inexperienced or corrupt (not implying he is). But he is, beyond a doubt, intelligent; as is John McCain.
The controversy caused by this is outrageous, and people need to stop trying to find insults where none were intended. It only drives the parties further apart, and diminishes unity in America.
Like Obama has already stated, this is ridiculous. This is the prime example of why the general public hates politics. Instead of focusing on real issues that effect the people of America, the main focus of our nations leaders is on lipstick. Obama put it best on his rebuttal to Republican accusations that Barack is a sexist, stating that instead of focusing on America's two wars, the economy or the education system we are focusing on "made-up controversy." Obama says that this is the "same game" that happens every four years during elections. The news the other day was filled with talk of lipstick; giving me a deja vu of Anna Nicole Smith when instead of focusing on real issues, the news was filled with worthless banter. I know Obama is a politician, but atleast he has enough sense to keep focus on the REAL issues.
On one hand, this is politics as usual. On another, McCain's camp is totally overreacting.
This reminds me of something I saw in a news segment... Palin was interviewed several months back as wondering why Hilary Clinton gets upset so easily because 'being under scrutiny is part of running for president'. And now Palin and everyone around her panic when people SEEM like they COULD be suggesting something offensive. Hypocrisy much?
I anticipate four years of "oh no, sexist!" cries... sigh.
A certain degree of this kind of silliness is to be expected, I suppose.
Sure, there's a parallel there, but he's not calling her a pig... the fact that this is getting so much press is totally ridiculous.
I believe this is just politics at work. We all know that Obama's campaign revolves around the idea of change, and the media and the republicans targeted Obama's lipstick rebuttal.
This to me is just the aftermath of Mccain's VP pick of Gov. Palin. Who's to say that a Governor we've never heard of is qualified? Who's to say that a Senator's lipstick rebuttal is a direct attack against Palin and not one against the McCain camp's idea of change?
Of course, the Republican's are doing their job of attacking the democratic "clique" and vice-versa, and the media is doing their job of pin-pointing the "gossip." But, it doesn't hurt to treat this whole "high-school" scenario objectively as people tuning into the gossip should.
I don't think Obama's comment was out of line or a sexist attack. As mentioned in this post, the "lipstick on a pig" phrase is actually a commonly used American idiom of long standing. I don't see why the Republicans would take such offence to it if McCain also had used it before to comment on Clinton's policies. Both candidates have used the phrase so why has Obama's use of it causing so much attention.
In my opinion I think that McCain's campaign is overreacting over Obama's statement. I think that they might be trying to hard to make Palin perceived as the most ideal vice-presidential choice for the country. There is just so much media attention and statements about Palin that it makes it difficult for voters to ditinguish between the truth and lies about her. This "lipstick on a pig" phrase by Obama and the Republicans offence from it is just another way the Republicans are trying to sway voters in their favor. Basically I think this just politics as usual.
well,this picture is very funny.“It smeared itself all over the news yesterday when it appeared that Barack Obama was likening Sarah Palin to a farmyard animal: "You can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig," this is very ture.But question is lipstick let pig be better? You can make pig thin but you need time.You can't really change pig to monkey.And l don't think this is sexist attack,and obama out of line.That's just a example.
I think that Obama was extremely out of line. Whether or no this saying was used before in past speeches, he still knew what he was doing when he made this comment. He was putting a play on what she said about pitbulls and lipstick. Because of the commenality of the phrase he can say that he was just making a statement that was often used in speeches. But Obama is a smart man and knew that what he was doing was sneaky and was going to be making fun of Palin
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