Instapundit has a roundup of reactions to Obama’s statement today:
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.”
Meh. I don’t think Obama was referring to Palin as a pig. He was using a common expression (“putting lipstick on a pig”). I say that as someone who likes Palin and who thinks Obama is a gaffe factory. There have been lots of hits on Palin. I don’t think this is one of them.
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“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.”
Do you actually believe this wasn’t planned in advanced? It was engineered exactly to generate faux outrage….
And if McCain responded with “That is like the pot calling the kettle black”, that would be the same as well? That is a common expression too.
Lipstick on a pig joke harks back to the late fifties, along with calling a spade a spade or a monkey in a silk suit is still a monkey. None of the three are acceptable today nor should they be. However there was a fornicating dog joke in the same era wherein the female dog’s owner broke up the lovefest by inserting a broomstick in the male dog’s anus and proclaiming: “Rover can dish it out, but he sure can’t take it!”
Oh, and by the way, the fish was wrapped in “The New York Times”! That was the source of the objectionable aroma referred to.
Is there another common expression involving old fish in a wrapper? Maybe its a muslim saying and that’s why I don’t know it? (Not saying he is muslim! Just that he grew up around them. Maybe he learned sayings about old fish instead of how many states there are or something.)
Taken together I don’t see how you can say it was innocent. Lipstick makes you think of Palin because of her acceptance speech and old fish wrapped in change is an allusion to McCain and his acceptance speech.
The crowd immediately started cheering before he reached the end of the sentence. That makes no sense unless something Obama was saying was reaching them. People don’t start cheering when you break out hackneyed phrases. People, well partisans, start cheering when you call you opponent a pig though.
Sorry, no sale. Occam’s Razor tells us that we choose the option requiring the fewest assumptions.
To accept that this was coincidence, we have to accept the following assumptions:
1) That it’s coincidence that he references lipstick, when talking about McCain/Palin, a week after lipstick was the punchline to a major joke at the RNC.
2) That it’s coincidence that he references “old fish” when his opponent is 72-years-old.
3) That it’s coincidence that on the same day this was said, Rep. Russ Carnahan of Missouri introduced Joe Biden by also jocularly referencing Sarah Palin and lipstick used to “cover up her record”.
Too many assumptions, Les. So…no sale.
And I’d say that his crowd’s reaction to the lines make it apparent that they, too, immediately got the reference.
Your attempt to defend Obama’s comments misses the point. Is it possible that he innocently did not foresee how his remarks would be taken? Sure it’s possible, but that’s really no defense. It’s not, because the reaction from his audience was immediate and unmistakable, and at that moment he certainly realized how his words had been interpreted, whether they were intentional or not. That obviously called for an immediate and forthright apology. Instead, he went with the flow of audience approval, letting their interpretation ride as a sort of free cheap shot at Palin. That’s what is beyond excuse, and that’s what earns him ownership of the moment.
Love it and live it, Obie. This one is going to cost you plenty.
McCain and Palin would be wise to keep their anger tempered. Whatever Obama’s intentions, he either demonstrated that he’s willing to call a woman a pig or this “new intelligence” we hear about is, well, stupid.
Obama’s real gaffe was insinuating that he and Michelle have a tough time with 2 kids, and Palin has 5 kids.
By itself, this is nothing. Coupled with Hillary, attacks against Trig, Bristol, mom duties, etc. Obama is demonstrating a pattern of behavior that is easy to read as disrespectful to women.
Gaffes aside, the sum of the last 10 days is that I’m very concerned about how Obama handles pressure. Polls, enthusiasm, and even money are working against him right now. He can’t seem to put one foot in front of the other without tripping over himself, especially when his mouth is moving.
It’s possible you’re right. Unlikely, but possible. However, given the howls of outrage that would have come if McCain or Palin had said something like that, Obama deserves to get smacked for it even if he is innocent this time. After all, recall his “flipping off Hillary” move earlier this year.
Now, whining about it should be off limits. But mocking Obama for it, that’s fine.
“Eight years” in the quote only makes sense if the “pig” is Palin and the “old fish” is McCain.
“You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig,” Obama went on, and the crowd erupted into shrieks, whoops and cheers. “You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It’s still going to stink, after eight years.”
If Obama had used only the fish reference, or only the pig/lipstick reference (though that one is just a bit too close and seems contrived) the probability that it was an innocent gaffe would be very high. But with two references so easily associated with his opponents, the probability that he’s innocent decreases significantly. Odds are he meant the remarks just the way the audience responded to them.
Obama fully intended a jab at Gov. Sarah Palin.
The evidence? His body language has a “tell”.
Obama’s body language “tells” it all — watch the clip of him again. Watch how he puts his hand up to his forehead and covers his eyes! You can literally read his mind like a comic book (all pictures) — he KNOWS he is about to commit political suicide with the punch line he is about to deliver, but he just can’t resist and cannot help himself. Therefore, he covers his eyes and “JUMPS” — he’ll be President “when pigs fly” — and over a cliff doesn’t count as “flying”! THUD. That’s the sound of a McCain/Palin VICTORY. Oh yeah!
PS Wrap a Barracuda in a hit piece in an old MSN liberal news rag and she’ll still come out smellin’ like a rose! Read it and weep, Obama.
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“Eight years” in the quote only makes sense if the “pig” is Palin and the “old fish” is McCain.
It makes more sense to me that eight years refers to Bush’s term in office.
If you want to refer to a female politician as a pig using the lipstick saying, here’s how you do it.
I for one don’t get how the remark is not a sly insult just because it’s wrapped in a common expression.
Did you expect to be outraged only if Obama had said something along the lines of “You know, that Sarah Palin is a pig”?
How could you be this clueless?
The Obama campaign made a number of lipstick references yesterday. Obama’s line was scripted. It was obvious to his crowd that Obama was referring to Palin. It is the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind who sees the clip.
So it doesn’t matter what Obama says he meant. What matters is that anyone with even a tiny brain would recognize that he meant Palin. And Obama thought it would be a smart thing to say.
That’s stupid.
Does anyone here recall “macaca” and how the MSM and their Democrat pets rode that never-before-heard word to victory in the Allen/Webb showdown of 2006?
After that, why should the Messiah get any sympathy? Let He Whose Middle Name Must Not Be Mentioned be judged by the same standards the GOP must face.
Where is the outrage about McCain using that phrase. See the videos for yourself:
http://ktownliberal.blogspot.com/2008/09/lipstick-on-pig.html