Obama: "Lipstick on a Pig"

BARACK OBAMA: John McCain says he's about change, too, and so I guess his whole angle is, 'Watch out George Bush.' Except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics, we're really gonna shake things up in Washington. That's not change. That's just calling something the same thing, something different.

But you know, you can, you know, you can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig. You know, you can... wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it's still going to stink after eight years.

The question: Did Barack Obama call Sarah Palin a pig?

My take: No. Obama did not call her a pig, but I believe there was a subtext to Obama's comments.

Listen to the crowd's reaction.

They cheered wildly. I believe that they took Obama's lipstick line to be a reference to Sarah Palin.

That's my interpretation.

Naturally, the Obama camp denies that the candidate used the slur. And I think they stand on solid ground there. Obama did not say Palin is a pig.

However, I think Obama was a complete idiot to use the line when so much is being made of Sarah Palin, hockey moms, pit bulls, and lipstick.

"Read my lipstick" appeared on homemade signs at the rally in Cedarburg, where John McCain and Sarah Palin held their first rally after the convention.

McCain-Palin bumper stickers, signs, and t-shirts are emblazoned with "Read my Lipstick."

When Joe Biden was on Meet the Press last Sunday, Tom Brokaw referred to Sarah Palin's popularity and "Read my Lipstick."

MR. BROKAW: She did get off to a very fast start the day after they left St. Paul. They were out in Wisconsin, at Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Here were just some of the signs. Huge lineup of women, some of them with their daughters. "Wisconsin Loves Palin!" "Pro-Life Hockey Moms 4 Palin." "Sarah Leaves Liberals Spinning." "Read my Lipstick," that was a reference to her line, "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull," and she said, "lipstick."

Now, are we supposed to believe that the eloquent, the genius, the silver-tongued Obama didn't realize that using the expression "lipstick on a pig" had the potential to cause an uproar?

Either Obama intended to make the connection, knowing that he could claim he really didn't call Palin a pig, or the guy is just clueless.

I can accept either possibility. I think Obama is frightened enough to start wallowing in the mud of the pig pen. I also think that Obama is not very good at speaking without a teleprompter or a strict script. He stammers and fumbles around and screws up royally.

Politico has the statements on the matter from the Obama and McCain campaigns.

UPDATE: The McCain campaign is now saying Obama called Palin a pig, which he didn't. The Obama campaign notes that "lipstick on a pig" is a fairly common idiom Obama often uses, as in a recent Washington Post interview. McCain has also used the phrase.

Though on a day when Obama's surrogates were joking that Palin's record can't be concealed with lipstick, it was hard for those following the campaign not to hear the echo.

UPDATE: Obama aide Anita Dunn responds to the McCain campaign's claim that Obama compared Palin to a pig:

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 think the McCain campaign is justified in complaining about Obama's comment.

The denials of the Obama campaign have some legitimacy. In effect, they are saying Obama is a poor politician and didn't realize he would set off a firestorm when he used the lipstick line. Apparently, Obama has been in a bubble and wasn't aware that the expression would take on a new meaning now that Sarah Palin is in the race.

I don't accept Anita Dunn's statement that this is all a "pathetic attempt to play the gender card."

Dunn's assertion that this "lays bare the increasingly dishonorable campaign John McCain has chosen to run" is really what's pathetic.

This incident indicates to me that Barack Obama and his minions don't do well under pressure.