Pig lipstick: Barbara Boxer smacks down Republican smears

Some Thoughts on Pigs in Lipstick
I'm trying to get work done on something else—a piece of writing and thinking not related to the Alaskan body-snatcher who seems to have invaded our collective brain—but my mind keeps returning to the trivial campaign flap of the day, this flurry of feigned outrage about "lipstick on a pig." Rachael's right that the Obama campaign's unfortunate choice of this phrase to describe the cynical repackaging of John McCain's economic plan opens the Dems up to charges of sexism. But I honestly can't decide: Is the use of the phrase, even if it does include a veiled jab at Palin, really sexist? After all, this is a woman who, in a much-praised convention speech (now being endlessly repeated on the stump) referred to herself as a "pit bull with lipstick." Isn't Obama's repurposing of a related metaphor just pointing out that, beneath that lipstick, the emperor's pit bull has no clothes?

As is being widely blogged today, McCain used the same figure of speech to deride Hillary's health care plan back in May. (The Christian Science Monitor reports that Dick Cheney also used it to demean Kerry's war record in 2004, and that Obama used it earlier in the campaign to criticize Bush's Iraq policy.) As far as I can recall, the Clinton campaign, which was never slow to seize upon opportunities for umbrage, let the phrase pass unnoticed (if anyone has a clip to refute that claim, please send along). Then again, McCain did preface his comparison with the sentence "I don't like to use this term." Why not? What would his disclaimer mean, if not that the phrase was somehow offensive to Hillary?

Pigs and pit bulls: two animals popularly considered to be unpleasant (though both can actually make smart and loving pets!), both repackaged with a slapped-on coat of Revlon (personally, I like Cherries in the Glow). The difference, of course, is that the pit-bull joke puts an admirable spin on the image of the dolled-up beast: Pit bulls are to be admired for their toughness and tenacity (and lipstick only makes them cuter!) while a pig is just a pig, cosmetics or no. What do the rest of you XX-ers think: If the Hillary campaign had cried sexism over the same porcine imagery, would you have given it more or less credence? And would you rather compare yourself to a dog, or have someone else compare your ideas to a pig?
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/xxfactor/archive/2008/09/10/lipstick-some-po...
All campaigns must change in order to handle the arrival of a vice-presidential candidate. To accommodate Sarah Palin, John McCain's Straight Talk Express has now installed a fainting couch. It's not for the vice-presidential candidate—she's plenty tough—but for McCain aides who are rapidly perfecting the act of expiring on the cushions on her behalf at every sign of perceived sexism.

Tuesday night they turned in a spectacular performance. Barack Obama used the expression "lipstick on a pig" to refer to McCain's new pitch as a change agent in Washington. "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."

The McCain campaign reacted to the remarks with emergency umbrage. A conference call was ordered for 7 p.m. Former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, the newly minted chair of the "Palin Truth Squad," told reporters she was offended at Obama's attack on Palin. She couldn't explain how Obama's general attack was a personal one aimed at Palin but asserted it was just obvious. She also took offense on behalf of her children. She may have even put her hand to her brow, but it was a phone call, so I couldn't tell. (Note: If it had been a man on the call, I also would have used this expression because of the silent-movielike theatricality. I believe that this gesture is gender neutral, but if you have another one, drop us a line and we'll fix it.)

The McCain team's hypersensitive and highly managed approach to the new vice president offers up yet more signs of just how far the Republican nominee has come from his freewheeling days. McCain, once one of the most accessible politicians in modern times, has essentially hidden his vice-presidential pick from the press since her selection. Palin's performances are highly scripted, and the campaign that once rightly criticized bloggers for taking McCain's every utterance out of context has now perfected the blogger's quick trigger of outrage.
http://www.slate.com/id/2199738/

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[rrhynes]

LOL. Hardly. Too much drama. I do know what California and the rest of the country doesn't need. Rich, entitiled people that have never worked a real job and think they can run the country are the first on my list to go. No more lifelong senators or representatives. It's the "comfort" factor, aka Ted Kennedy, that's killing this country. No new ideas, just the same old shit.

[bacondoesabodygood]

"You know who ends up losing at the end of the day? Its not the democratic candidate, its not the republican candidate, its you. The American people"

*On Fox News the next day*

Did Barack HUSSEIN Obama call the American people "losers"?

Yeah, tell me I'm wrong.....

[tommyrc1990]

worst senator ever

[c0mbineelite]

@DatabaseCritic Oh wow.

[DatabaseCritic]

Obama was being sexist when referring to Sarah as a pig. Sarah Palin gives women someone to look up to.

[xstaytruexpositivex]

she is such a bitch. what is wrong with my fellow California folks who keep re-electing her over and over?

[mazzottam1]

It's quite funny that Barbara Boxer's putting the effort into talking about this statement rather than actually working to get California out of the hole it's fallen into. What a useless piece of crap she is.

[emjee]

Vote Boxer OUT!! We have had 28 years of this stupid bitch would couldnt run a cut-rate womens shoe store!! Drop kick that bitch back to New Yawk!!! She has had WAY TOO MANY chances to be effective, instead she sits in her mink lined gutter and hob nobs with Washington elite. What was it that Obama said? CHANGE? Well, it's time for CHANGE in California!!

[RockingJamboree]

@NickB1967 Seriously? You can stand by your crude sexist claptrap language? Would you talk this way about your mother or even in front of her?

[1casas]

shes pathetic. she needs to go and get the hell out of our state!

[poisonapple16]

@aitraining I'll take that as a concession to my point as you have included no argument.