Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Lipstick fallout

There's a dustup going on now ... I'm sure you've heard it ... regarding Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), the Democrats' presidential nominee ... making the "lipstick on a pig" comment. The fallout is that it's considered by many as a direct attack on Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), the GOP vice-presidential running mate of presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

If you watch the video, you'll notice a couple of things. First, he made the comments in reference to the message of the McCain-Palin ticket. And, second, Obama is not a good speaker without his notes and prompter; listen to him stutter.

"That's just calling something the same thing, something different. But you know you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."




And the McCain camp has responded:



So, why is the GOP responding with ire? Because they can. They'll get political mileage out of it. But that's the nature of politics. And I'm okay with it. Why? Keep reading.

The Obama camp is saying that the comments were okay, because they weren't a reference to Gov. Palin, but instead, a common phrase used in the past by many politicians, including Sen. McCain, regarding policies and proposed legislation.

But does the Obama camp really want to go down that road? Here's what I mean...

Let's suppose the Democrats had nominated Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-IL/AR/DC/NY) instead of Obama. And she still picked Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) as the vice-presidential nominee of that party.

Suppose McCain said:

  • If the other side wins, there will indeed be dark days ahead.

  • The other side is a dark cloud looming on the horizon.

  • If you thought Black Monday was a bad day for the ecomony, if the other side wins this election, every day will be Black Monday.




None of those comments would be a problem against a Clinton-Biden ticket.

But say them against an Obama-Biden ticket, and there'd be charges of racism.

So, since certain phrases would be off-limits because Obama is on the ticket, then certain phrases should be off-limits because Palin is on the ticket. (I'm sure you could think of many, many more ... and better ... examples.)

The Right can play by the Left's rules. And this team -- McCain-Palin -- will make the Left play by those same rules.

I love it.

UPDATE: This afternoon, the original YouTube video is no longer available, after (according to Google, who owns YouTube) CBS claimed a copyright violation of the content. I suppose that's because of the footage of Katie Couric. No matter. I've swiped the video from JohnMcCain.com, and am showing the video here anyway.





No comments:

Post a Comment

Please choose a Profile in "Comment as" or sign your name to Anonymous comments. Comment policy