I've been watching the news tonight and every station is replaying Obama's comment and the media is going after it like sharks on a feeding frenzy
"Tonight Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said of McCain painting himself as a change agent, "You know, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."
I found the piece (details below) on the ABC News website by Jake Tapper, who gives examples of Elizabeth Edwards, McCain, and Obama all using this same expression. It WAS NOT directed at Palin, a misunderstanding fueled by her lovely comment about the difference between soccer moms and pit bulls.
Nonetheless, this is getting a lot of air time is another distraction from the issues. Just want you all to know so you can spread the word before Palin's "truth squad" spreads lies about it.
From ABC News Website 9-10-08
By Jake Tapper
Last October, asked about Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan, Sen. John McCain, was blunt. McCain said Clinton's proposal was "eerily" similar to the ill-fated plan she devised in 1993. "I think they put some lipstick on a pig," he said, "but it’s still a pig." A common expression, right?
McCain surely wasn't calling Clinton a pig. After all, McCain's former press secretary, Torie Clarke, wrote a book called "Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era."
Tonight Sen. Barack Obama, said of McCain painting himself as a change agent, "You know, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." The crowd rose and applauded.
Obama's campaign insisted that he was not alluding to Palin at all.
"That expression is older than my grandfather's grandfather," said Obama campaign spox Jen Psaki, "and it means that you can dress something up but it doesn't change what it is. He was talking pretty clearly about the fact that you can't just call yourself change when you've voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time."
Why should anyone believe McCain didn't mean it about Hillary Clinton, but Obama meant it about Palin?...
...And yet, the inaugural conference call of what the McCain-Palin campaign is calling the "Palin Truth Squad" addressed Obama's remark. And interestingly, the Truth Squad call was full of half-truths and statements that weren't true at all. Speaking on behalf of the McCain campaign, former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift tonight flatly stated that Obama had called Palin a pig.
"Sen. Obama owes Gov. Palin an apology," she said.
Asked why she was so confident Obama was "comparing" Palin to a pig, she said Palin was the only one of the four candidates on both parties' tickets who wears lipstick, "I mean, it seemed to me a very gendered comment."
A reporter then reminded Swift that in December, McCain was asked about criticisms coming his way from then-opponent Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., and McCain replied, "Never get into a wrestling match with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it."...
Was McCain calling Romney a pig? a reporter asked Swift. Of course not, Swift said.
It seems to me we should have one rule. If Obama was calling Palin a pig, then McCain was calling Hillary Clinton one. If McCain wasn't, then Obama wasn't.