Yesterday I noticed the following story via the AP: McCain camp: Obama’s ‘lipstick’ remark disgraceful
Barack Obama told an audience Tuesday that GOP presidential nominee John McCain says he’ll change Washington, but he’s just like President Bush.
“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to Palin’s joke even if it’s not what Obama meant. “It’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still going to stink after eight years.”
McCain’s campaign called the comments “offensive and disgraceful” and said Obama owes Palin an apology. Obama’s campaign said he wasn’t referring to Palin and said the GOP camp was engaging in a “pathetic attempt to play the gender card.” Obama’s camp also noted that McCain once used the same phrase to describe Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plan.
Really, any fair minded person who wasn’t otherwise caught up on the hoopla of a presidential election, and the commensurate us v. them competition inherent in that process, would recognize the deployment of a rather common metaphor here and Obama’s obvious attempt to state that McCain’s recent adoption of the “change” meme is, to use another long-standing metaphor, putting new wine in old wineskins. Although I suppose that since Palin said in her convention speech that the difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom is lipstick that all lipstick references are owned by the McCain camp or should be considered a snide reference to Palin. If so this is an odd stage in the annals of political rhetoric in the United States (although there have been, no doubt, plenty of such moments).
At a minimum it is amazing how something like this draws massive attention–far more attention, than, say, a discussion about how the two men will prosecute the war or terror or the implications of the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac buyout. Just look at this screenshot from Memeorandum this morning at just before 7:00am central time (and I couldn’t even get all the stories onto the screen:
There is a lot to be said about all of this, but time presses at the moment. One simple thing to mention is to point the reader to Marc Ambinder, who notes that Obama has used the phrase before and he has the quote noted above when McCain used it to refer to the Democrat’s health care proposals.
In many ways the first sentence of the AP piece linked above gets it right:
What’s the difference between the presidential campaign before and after the national political conventions? Lipstick.
Because, really, of the lasting images or phrases from the conventions, Palin’s lipstick remark ranks towards the top in regards to memorability and it has been much discussed.
If anything this is another example of faux outrage run amuck.
Update: As I meant to mention above, I will say that Obama had to know that any reference to lipstick would create an association with Palin. That fact, however, does not vitiate my broader point.
Also, I noted driving to work that the lipstick bit was part of NPR’s coverage of the campaign on Morning Edition.
September 10th, 2024 at 8:14 am
I woke up to this controversy and have decided that American political discourse is officially insane.
Remember when McCain promised a “respectful debate on the issues?”
September 10th, 2024 at 8:46 am
Indeed, but this is THE arena that Team Obama has tried to fight the campaign. They destroyed Clinton by demonstrating faux outrage about everything that Bill Clinton said that could possibly be interpreted as racist. An innocent remark, a redfaced picture, and the “first black president” becomes Bull Connor. They tried to do the same with McCain (“they’re going to try to scare you” …) but found him to be both tougher and more disciplined than the Clinton duo.
I made the comment here during the primaries that by the general election that Obama’s surrogates would be screaming racism if McCain said the sun comes up in the east. And indeed they’ve tried that with the outrage over such matters as a white woman and black man in the same commercial. But McCain had to let it be known that he would hit back at such tactics.
The reality here is this is the type of tactic that Democrats have shot at Republicans for decades. A host of Republicans have been destroyed via an innocent comment that sparked faux outrage in the talking heads. If you don’t believe me ask George “Macaca” Allen or Al “Putz” D’Amato.
This is the environment of today, brought on primarily by Democrats. If Obama doesn’t realize that or if he’s not disciplined enough to avoid such landmines then he doesn’t deserve to win.
One more note: Former Clinton Aide Leon Panetta says that Palin is inside Obama’s head, and he’s making unforced errors because of that. I completely agree with that. If he can’t find the discipline to stay on message and avoid these problems he will lose this election. But then, if he’s thrown off balance by a tough, aggressive woman do we want him leading the free world?
September 10th, 2024 at 8:55 am
I don’t think its faux outrage. It seems like some folks are genuinely outraged, not faux-ly outraged.
Whether that’s fair or not is sort of irrelevant – if Obama is smart his campaign will kick into damage control on this really fast, as being perceived (rightly or wrongly) to have called the opposing (female) VP candidate a pig is not good for one’s image.
It was an unusually poor choice of words for Obama. Not saying he meant it the way it came out; certainly McCain can’t “own” a metaphor, but deploying this one in the wake of the Palin speech, after the pitbull/lipstick comment generated such applause, and thinking the Palin fans wouldn’t take offense seems a bit dumb. If he just wasn’t thinking about how it would be taken by Palin fans I guess maybe he didn’t watch her speech?
Anyway, I’m not saying he deserves as much criticism as he as getting – but it was a Biden-esque thing to say. He stuck his foot in his mouth and when candidates do that they take a bit of a beating. This highlights how careful you have to be on the campaign trail, as the message will get lost and what will be remembered is the comment, out of context.
September 10th, 2024 at 9:07 am
Reason Magazine has a good run-down of previous GOP uses of the lipstick metaphor.
September 10th, 2024 at 10:08 am
It is all about politic. Obama comparism is very clear.Bush administration continue inrespect of change the MC Cain/Patin are recently shouting, because their birds of thesame feathers. That it all what Obama told American and Americans understand the interpretation. GOP should concentrate on tangible matters which will benefit Americans not manipulating words from Republicans.
September 10th, 2024 at 10:37 am
By that logic Palin stole her line from the Onion in the first place. (“You can’t put a bucket over a pig’s head, it’ll just make him skittish!”- (grizzled third-party candidate video))
You can tell she stole it because they both have the word “pig”.
No joke.
September 10th, 2024 at 10:39 am
OBAMA MUST THINK THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE STUPID !!!
It’s one thing when Obama tries to cover up mistakes he’s
made in private, or when he feebly tries to cover up or misdirect
us, by saying that he never heard Wright’s anti-American sermons
over a 20 year period … but, when Obama tells us that the
Palin lipstick/pig remark wasn’t an insult directed towards
Governor Palin, then Obama is adding insult to injury towards
the American people. This creep is not Presidential material.
September 10th, 2024 at 10:42 am
Obama should simply highlight the ludicrous nature of this attack on move on. Paint McCain into a corner (metaphor) about what type of campaign he is running.
September 10th, 2024 at 10:45 am
I think Obama is right on the mark. I mean what else can the GOP do but put lipstick on a pig? I think McCain’s VP is a desperate attempt to repackage the Republican “Brand” in a new maverick mythology, which by all stretches of the imagination is entirely chimerical.
I think it will be difficult for Republicans to make any substantial arguments against affirmative action after this pick. Affirmative action not for individual uplift but as desperate political maneuvering is a cynical betrayal of principals to gain power.
One question – and please answer honestly:
Were Palin a man, would McCain have picked her? Point made.
…and now John McCain only wants to talk about Palin.
Why? Skepticism isn’t sexism…..
Do you love how the McCain campaign is exploiting women by his VP pick?
It seems to be working and it is a sign of how gullible people are.
Before Palin, McCain was no go for women. So the McCain campaign picks a woman with just about the same opinions and record as McCain, and women start falling in line? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
What does that say about American women?
September 10th, 2024 at 11:18 am
McCain laughed when one of his supporters referred to Hillary Clinton as a bit*h. He did not take offense. McCain’s platform is all smoke and mirrors. Another analogy is your can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig.
September 10th, 2024 at 11:19 am
McCain laughed when one of his supporters referred to Hillary Clinton as a bit*h. He did not take offense. McCain’s platform is all smoke and mirrors. Another analogy is you can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig.
September 10th, 2024 at 11:41 am
Barry knew exactly what he was doing with his snide remarks. Now Obama is knocking the press HA HA. Remember the scratch during the Hillary debate? Anyone who thinks it wasn’t deliberate; watch these two videos of two different speeches. The sign is given at exactly the same spot in the speeches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoOFp-RDpvM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhkq11UExcw
September 10th, 2024 at 11:52 am
Obama’s remark was offensive.
Poor pigs. No one gives them any respect.
September 10th, 2024 at 12:21 pm
Wouldn’t want that to get in the way of the ‘Obamas a muzzie’ rants.
Why worry about Ms Palin, she doesn’t even want to live in this nation.
September 10th, 2024 at 1:39 pm
This could have been an election season between 2 gentlemen. Senator McCain ran an ad congratulating Sen. Obama on his nomination and convention.
Within minutes of announcing the GOP VP pick, the Obama camp issued no congratulatory comments, like gentlemen do, but questioned her experience, then her vetting, then his sanity.
When the move-on/DU/Kos Kids spent 3 hateful, ugly days trashing Mrs. Palin, her baby, and her daughter, she was forced to make a public statement about her daughters pregnancy. Mr. Obama could have had class and gotten ahead of this controversy. He has a history of dirty tricks and letting the moonbats do his dirty work.
Three days lapsed before Mr. Obama made his weak “leave the families alone” statement, and that was only after people started pointing out his own mothers lack of moral behavior.
Mr. Obama has had 2 weeks to “change” the tone of the champaign. He only wants to whine “enough” when it reflects badly on him.
As a woman, I will tell you that I found the comment he made personal. Yes, I’ve heard and even used it before in relation to many other situations. My own family told me many times to put “lipstick on the pig” when cleaning and fixing my mothers old house for sale. But in this situation, and as the accumulated pig/lipstick/dog remarks are made by seasoned and smart political operatives, it refers spefically to only one person and not programs or ideals or political platforms.
Wise up Dr. Steve. The only time people tell us to raise the debate is when we are hitting back. And making the point that maybe Mr. Obama is “new” himself.
Do I want to know who is going to govern the US and make the policies I want to see and take the direction the country in the right direction? Yes. But that is what the debates are supposed to do. This silliness is pure entertainment and if Mr. Obama wants to step it in, which I think was intentional, then he earned the raking over the coals he is getting.
September 10th, 2024 at 1:50 pm
Ohio Granny,
Wise up Dr. Steve. The only time people tell us to raise the debate is when we are hitting back
Speaking for myself, I have a history of wishing the level of the debate to be raised. I find this level of discourse silly, but so it goes.
Ah, well, at least I am not “Dude” today
S
September 10th, 2024 at 2:20 pm
Maybe we’ll get lucky and the Large Hadron Collider will create a black hole and destroy the earth and we won’t have to listen to this for two more months.
I wonder how Obama and McCain would deal with a black hole. Could FEMA handle it?
Those crazy Europeans. . .
September 10th, 2024 at 2:20 pm
Three things
1) Who said this: Do I want to know who is going to govern the US and make the policies I want to see and take the direction the country in the right direction? Yes. But that is what the debates are supposed to do. This silliness is pure entertainment and if Mr. Obama wants to step it in, which I think was intentional, then he earned the raking over the coals he is getting.
Oh yeah. That was me in post #15
2) I don’t know if you have access to many presidential library/homes but here in Ohio we have many. At the Rutherford B. Hayes family home/library they have a wonderful section showing all the newspaper attacks and cartoons and party antics during the march to the White House. It is quite enlightening and I have found comfort in it when we have had to endure these last 16 years. Yes, 16, not just 8, years.
3)Even this shall pass away.
September 10th, 2024 at 2:33 pm
Given: Any “fair minded person” would recognize the use of a common metaphor, and not an attempt to liken Sarah Palin to a barnyard animal.
Observation: The crowd to which Obama was speaking reacted positively to the metaphor as an attempt to liken Sarah Palin to a barnyard animal.
Conclusion: People who attend Obama rallies are not fair-minded people.
The above silly “proof” is presented only in a semi-facetious way — I agree that Obama probably just opened his mouth and shoved his foot right in (who among us hasn’t?), but the reaction of the crowd suggests that lots of people with no interest in mau-mauing Obama took the same interpretation as those on the Right expressing outrage.
Incidentally, what was Obama doing earlier this week calling McCain “shameless” and referring to his “lies?” Doesn’t he have surrogates, or at least Biden, to do that kind of name-calling for him? If he were smart, he’d let his staff, or friendly networks, or blogs, or 527 groups do the nastiness for him, like smart campaigners do.
September 10th, 2024 at 2:47 pm
What do you expect America?
You expect these GOP tools who have been telling us lies for the last 8 years, to actually have a respectful debate?? What planet are you on? See the GOP doesn’t want to talk about their record of the last 8 years, so instead they change the subject. The Republicans elects a doffus TWICE for President (Bush) and now I’m supposed to trust thier judgement?
After a decade of endless lies and corruption from Republicans, I’m not going to trust them as far as I can spit.
The Republican attack system is very simple actually. Create a grotesquely distorted caricature, broadcast the delusion at the top of your lungs, and hope that you manage to reinforce just enough cynicism and hopelessness to ensure the election of someone who truly cares only for funneling all of the country’s wealth and power into the hands of a tiny, corrupt elite.
The American electorate eats up the drama like a soap opera, but are too stupid to realize that it’s real.
So what do we get? 4100 of our kids dead in a war that should never have been waged, a shaky economy, record deficits….the list goes on. Stupid IS as stupid DOES.
September 10th, 2024 at 3:02 pm
Well, I guess this is the old “Double Standard”, I can say it and get away with it, but you can’t. Now we know why McCain picked Palin, to take the heat off of him, to distracts voters too limited to see what he is all about and those that care less about what he has NOT DONE for the past 26 years of being in the senate. If McCain had been such a good choice for the presidency why
did his own party reject him for president eight years ago?
They thought more of Bush than McCain and we know what that got us, A MESS! Now they want to push the 90% voting along with Bush, absent minded, can’t speak well, “I don’t know much about the economy” McCain down our throats to make a bigger mess. No wonder we are so little respected by other countries, we pick such idiots to run our own country. We prefer limited rather than elite, we want them to “sound like us (and look like us), just like the “girl” next door, not too “elite”, common folk, someone I would feel alright having a beer with. So we pick “someone that finished 5th at the bottom of his class”, someone that had to have someone pull strings to get him into the War College because he didn’t qualify, with a gun toting hockey mom as a running mate, to run our country. No wonder the British Daily News asked (after the Bush re-election) “How can 59 million people be so stupid?”
September 10th, 2024 at 3:23 pm
I am not voting for Obama,
I am voting for America and Obama just happens to the one who is more concerned about our (we the people..) well being and safety.
He also happens to be the only one running for president who has had his wife, patriotism, ethnicity, religion, and Race challenged, attacked, and insulted for 19 months, and through it all he shown true character, honor, courage, and grace under fire.
Americans really need to take a long hard look at what is coming out of the McCain camp. Palin and McCain cry “Sexism” or “unpatriotic” every time someone questions their ability, experience and character, this is unbelievably childish and we should be asking; If they can’t handle honest criticism here, how in the world are they going to handle:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin
Venezuela President Hugo Rafael Chávez
I don’t want to got to war every time some world leader disagrees with McCain or Palin, can you imagine Palin and that strangled cat voice talking to Ahmadinejad (shudder)
September 10th, 2024 at 3:24 pm
To ApostasyUSA :
Darling, they have medication these days that might help. Of course, you might not even know how strange and hysterical and creepy you sound to rational people. Get some help.
For everyone else:
I thought Bush Derangement Syndrome was temporary insanity but alas, considering the truly vileness of some of the articles by supposedly educated people (Camile Paglia, Maureen Dowd, Gloria Steinum – and yes, I didn’t bother making sure I spelled their names correctly but they don’t deserve that much consideration), it seems the beat goes on.
Let us pray that this year 60 million people will “be so stupid”, or so smart.
I said during the primary season, all the people who voted for Mr. Obama already came out and voted for him. He can’t get to the White House on just the black vote, which came out en masse for the primaries. And his ego made him think he didn’t need Hilliary, didn’t need Bill, didn’t need Ohio, didn’t need PA, or MI, didn’t need to move to the middle, didn’t need or want the $84M, didn’t need a VP pick that would bring in the south. So now he is showing his rookie side and his leftie netbats are howling foul. tsk tsk.
September 10th, 2024 at 3:34 pm
Woe to us if decisions are made in November based on lipstick “smears” – every journalist the in the US, conservative, liberal or in-between should be outraged that McCain is repeatedly flatly lying that “Obama is ready to raise eveyone’s taxes” – see CNN.Money’s detailed analysis. Obama’s plan hugely benefits the working and middle class vs. McCain’s.
Palin is also repeating fully verified lies every day on the campaign trail – about saying “no thanks” to the bridge to nowhere, about selling her jet on Ebay and firing her chef, about being an earmark maverick, etc.
This is a clearly dishonest, dangerously misleading character to put near the highest office in the land. If the public doesn’t know about her lies, it’s because the press has completely lost its integrity as defender of the public interest in favor of tabloid gossip about lipstick, pigs and nonsense.
You and I may die based on a stupid decision Palin makes or lie she tells. This is a person who doesn’t believe global warming is caused by humans and thinks Creationism should be taught in school – she seems like an attractive person – but absurd as VP in the 21st century. I can’t believe this country is considering her for a moment.
When I was growing up, people used to care whether their potential leaders repeatedly and knowingly lied. Now, clearly many are so hate filled, they don’t care about what is true. We can only hope and pray they don’t define this country.
September 10th, 2024 at 3:45 pm
Ohio Granny
What are you saying? Remember:
Abu Ghraib, Plamegate, Niger Forgeries, Manipulated Intelligence on Iraq and Iran, Preventive war doctrine, Executive orders providing (Unlimited) Presidential Powers, Armstrong Williams and paid propagandists, Illegal warrant less NSA wiretapping, Walter Reed, Firing of US attorneys, illegally transferring resources to Iraq from Afghanistan, Tom Ridge and false threat levels, Michael Chertoffs general incompetence, Halliburton and Cheney, Hurricane Katrina and reconstruction, Black prisons and extraordinary rendition, Homeland Security, Blackwater, involvement in Delays and Abramoffs K Street Lobbyists Project, Cheney’s Energy Policy, Big Oil’s writing of it, and refusal to divulge participants, tax cuts for the wealthiest, denial of Global warming, big budget deficits and vastly increased national debt, big pharmaceuticals write prescription drug plan, attempts to torpedo the 911 Commission, Failure to implement the 911 Commission recommendations, loss of US reputation internationally after massive post-911 world support, by his own admission doesn’t care anymore about bin Laden, under funding of basic research, Alberto Gonzales, FDA and EPA, Porter Goss and the gutting of the CIA, Signing statements, Terri Schiavo (family and privacy rights in end of life cases), Overuse and abuse of the National Guard and Reserves, US balance of trade deficit, Dubai Ports deal.
Who could justify that list? The above list of examples, of the cursory Republican leadership our country has had to endure for the last 8 years, is exacty why Republicans can’t talk about Republicans.
September 10th, 2024 at 4:01 pm
Obama is worse than disingenuous, he’s a a bold face liar! Does he think Americans are that stupid? I guess he’s gotten away with lying to us so many times, with the bias left wing media looking the other way, that he thinks he can get away with anything … like, “I never heard Pastor Wright make an anti-American racist remark in TWENTY YEARS”. The democratic argument that the lipstick/pig remark was used before doesn’t hold any water, because it was used in a different context. This time it’s obviously a nasty slur directed towards Palin, in lieu of her lipstick pit bull remark. Elect McCain/Palin in November 2024.
September 10th, 2024 at 4:41 pm
ApostasyUSA
I could go through you list item by item and give you some sanity and logic to each hysterical charge.
Abu Ghraib? Some stupid actions by stupid people who were tried and jailed
Plamegate? You must be kidding! These were 2 people who craved the media attention and still think it makes them valid. It doesn’t.
Manipulated Intelligence? Clintons’ Sec. of State, Madeline Albright, was on the talk shows saying exactly the same things for 4 years!
Illegal warrentless wire tapping? Honey, it was legal wire tapping OF TERRORISTS.
Walter Reed. Yes, that was on us.
Firing US Attorneys? They served at the perogative of the Attorney General. The biggest mistake made was that they weren’t fired sooner and that Gonzales didn’t flick off the questions.
On it goes. yawn. I’m seriously bored with your lame arguments.
You take talking points and act as if they are facts or not just buzz points. GROW UP. This is probably why you can’t see that this is the hardball game of politics and if you can’t get perspective it will warp you.
Calling people “trolls” or tools or whatever screed you were on doesn’t make you right.
Every president makes mistakes. Every president has his day in the sun and his dark times. Go visit a presidential library. You believe that Iraq was the wrong war. I don’t. I watched Pres. Bush go to the UN and get approval. I watched Pres. Bush ask congress TWO TIMES for approval, and he got it. So the whiners wanted to play CYA after the fact. You have to give it to Hilliary that for 5years she stuck by her decision and only renieged when it became a campaign disaster for her.
My comments are about the level of discourse in this election. I originally stated that Senator Obama could have made this about the issues right from the get go. He didn’t.
He is not a gentleman. He has no class. He has no grace. And he is not presidential material.
Talk about facing down all the enemies and making great decisions. This guy can’t even rise above some wise cracks made by the opposition at their own convention. Geez. He is continuing to implode and I say, let him.
But you, my dear, won’t even admit to it when it is happening right in front of your eyes.
Want to point to something? How about Harriet Myers? That was a very bad choice. And who put the brakes on that? His own party.
We take the blame when we are wrong. We are the ones who are first in line to critisize mistakes.
September 10th, 2024 at 4:42 pm
C’MON! Please!
I read the transcript then watched the video and i SO tried to wrap my mind around the possibility that Barak Obama called Sarah Palin a “pig” and i simply can’t do it.
Mr. Obama was speaking to the failed policies of the Bush administration and attempting to link the Republican ticket with said policies. It’s his shtick, it’s what he’s done for months. So the ONLY possible meaning in the context of what he actually said is that Sarah Palin is the LIPSTICK, not the pig. To my mind that’s an astute and funny observation given that it’s exactly what the republicans are doing.
I agree this is a calculated over-reaction to sling cr*p at the wall and see what sticks. Notice how the Republicans didn’t back down, because it’s mission accomplished already; they’ve managed to give lots of people the vague impression that Barak Obama called Sarah Palin a pig. This has to be a new low in political discourse. If the Republicans are gonna take this tack, isn’t there something vaguely sexist in the “fish” comment as well?
One must wonder how many soccer moms appreciated Mrs. Palin likening them to dogs in the first place. Seems like a case of the pot calling the kettle… er… black?
I’m no Obama fan. I was planning on voting for John McCain before he selected a pit bull with lipstick as his running mate. I don’t want… no… i can’t have a fundamentalist Ann Coulter clone a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
September 10th, 2024 at 4:44 pm
Here’s Obama’s full statement for those who would rather generate their opinions based on fact:
“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. That’s not change. 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. You know, you can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it’s still going to stink after eight years.”
So if one reads it in context, Obama is talking about Republican Policy. Funny, but, it is actually the McCain campaign trying to manipulate the public and the media by taking the statement out of context.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers,”
Thomas Pynchon.
September 10th, 2024 at 4:48 pm
PS. It was right here, by Dr. Steve, that serious questions were raised about the vetting and qualifications and earnest desire to get the right people in office.
Dr. Steve, you are hereby relieved of your “dude” moniker.
September 10th, 2024 at 4:59 pm
Mr. Obama stepped in it. Now he can’t get the smell off his shoes. Take a transcript for what it is worth. The video shows he was trying to get cute. But the people cheered because they knew exactly what he was referring to. Suddenly, getting cute isn’t so swell when it comes back to bite you.
It doesn’t matter except that it shows that everytime someone rattles Obama holiness he wants a time out. So is this how he is going to govern? Whine. whine. whine.
I honestly don’t know if McCain/Palin can do what they say. It worries me. I do know that Mr. William Jefferson Clinton said it best
“If one guy is making alot of promises, but you know he can’t deliver, and another guy is making promises and you know he can make good on most of them, well, who you going to choose?”
The biggest lie this political season? Obama can reach across the aisle. Really? When? How? He couldn’t even get along with McCain on ethics reform before betting the boot and being told that he was a big political partisan hack. This from the guy who works with Kerry, and Kennedy, and Feingold, and Boxer.
September 10th, 2024 at 5:09 pm
Here’s some more facts:
WHAT SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW HIM BEST SAY ABOUT JOHN MCCAIN:
“He is a vicious person”
Former representative Charles LeBoutillier R-NY
“An embarrassment to the party”
Arizona GOP state senator Susan Johnson
“There is nothing redeeming about John Mccain…he’s a hypocrite”
Former house GOP whip Tom DeLay
“The thought of him being president sends a chill down my spine. He is erratic”
Senator Thad Cochran, R- MS
“Hard headed is one way to say it. Arrogant is another way to say it. It’s a quality about him that disturbs me”.
Larry Wilkerson, former chief aide to Colin Powell
“What happens if he gets angry in a crisis…? It’s the president’s job to negotiate and stay calm. I just don’t see that he has that quality”.
Former Arizona GOP chairman John Hinz
“His temper would place this country at risk…and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind that should disqualify him”
Former Senator Bob Smith, R-NM
“I decided I didn’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.”
Senator Pete Domenici, R-NM
September 10th, 2024 at 5:16 pm
Obama can reach across the aisle.
The Financial Times
Obama holds bipartisan economy talks:
Mr McCain’s tax and spending proposals would add an estimated $3,400bn to the US deficit over the next decade compared with an estimated $700bn deficit reduction from Mr Obama’s plans, according to the Tax Policy Center, an independent think-tank.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e23cc97c-5cfa-11dd-8d38-000077b07658.html
Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama:
“Army Specialist Jay Navas contributed $250 while deployed in Iraq, but it wasn’t over the Internet. “It took some effort to get that check. I had my mom send me my checkbook and I walked to the post office in Camp Liberty in Baghdad with an envelope addressed to Barack Obama in Chicago, Illinois,” he said. “He was right on Iraq long when others were jumping into the sea like lemmings, and that’s hard to do. We’re soldiers and we respect courage.”
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/08/troops-deployed-abroad-give-61.html
About Obama’s Senate record:
His first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427. These included:
**the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2024 (became law),
**The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act, (became law),
**The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate,
**The 2024 Government Ethics Bill, (became law),
**The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill, (In committee), and many more.
September 10th, 2024 at 5:20 pm
“But the people cheered because they knew exactly what he was referring to.”
Yeah, i got it too. Lipstick (Palin) on a pig (Republican policy). So why is that half the population wants to make something different of it?
Seriously, what IS the logic?
- Sarah Palin fancies herself a dog with lipstick.
- Barak Obama and his audience are aware of this.
- Barak Obama uses the words “lipstick” and “pig” in the same sentence, and his audience laughs raucously.
- Therefore, Barak Obama called Sarah Palin a Pig?
If that follows, it’s by a long, circuitous route through an alternate universe, and it would take some time to process and to find the humor. Which gives Democrats more credit for quick wit than they generally deserve.
Frankly i tire of the lot of you; you’re all insane. It’s sad commentary that the only sane person in the race was dismissed as a whacko. I’m gonna cling to my religion and guns and head for the hills.
September 10th, 2024 at 6:26 pm
What is all the hoopla about? John McCain made the same statement in reference to Senator Hillary Clinton. Here we go again-DOUBLE STANDARDS!!!!
September 10th, 2024 at 6:36 pm
It’s true.
Sarah Palin is to John McCain as lipstick is to a pig.
You can put up pretty curtains to frame a broken window – that doesn’t change the fact that the window’s still broken.
AMERICANS ARE SMARTER THAN THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN GIVES THEM CREDIT.
McCain is wagging the dog – He’s purposely diverting attention from important issues to things insignificant. The media then thrusts the story into the limelight – drowning proper attention to what was originally the more important issue.
September 10th, 2024 at 8:31 pm
Oh, black hole, take us now. . .
September 11th, 2024 at 8:55 am
[...] of the most significant issues of the campaign. Of course, many would prefer to be outraged about lipstick and such than be overly concerned about such matters. Really, now that I think about it, I know [...]
September 11th, 2024 at 4:28 pm
I am with Capt D on this one.
Although I am not so sure a psychic blackhole has not already been created by political geniuses which has sucked the common sense smack out of our collective brain.
Prof Taylor offers up a post below analyzing 10 quite different policy proposals for each candidate and requests comments – 2 regulars respond.
But here we’ll probably get 50 strident reader opinions re the nuances of lipstick and other torrents of piffle.
God help us to come to some rational basis for making a decent choice of leadership at this critical time because we appear too stupid and lazy to reach that result on our own.
September 11th, 2024 at 4:50 pm
Prof Taylor offers up a post below analyzing 10 quite different policy proposals for each candidate and requests comments – 2 regulars respond.
But here we’ll probably get 50 strident reader opinions re the nuances of lipstick and other torrents of piffle.
Yes, I have noticed this phenomenon myself, and have thought about posting on it. There is no doubt that this is the kind of stuff people like to talk about. I think it is very much akin to sports–people have picked their teams and are going to root for them no matter what.
September 11th, 2024 at 7:05 pm
I agree Prof Taylor with your post above. However, I held the apparently naive hope that the election this year would foster a bit different atmosphere.
Unlike most cycles doesn’t it seem like the candidates are moving further away from the center as the campaign progresses? Maybe this widening gap is for the better, but I personally am finding neither candidate’s policy preferences very inviting at the moment.
But at a time of bleak employment news it heartening to see political mudslingers working overtime.
September 12th, 2024 at 1:09 pm
Well, jeeze, if you’re talking about the 10 worst ideas post – any one of those 20 points could be debated ad infinitum. Only a few of them were incontrovertibly bad. I wouldn’t have a problem dissecting them one at a time and talking about them, but thrown out there on a laundry list, everything from foreign policy to nuclear power to cap-and-trade – that just isn’t a format conducive to debate.
Someone like me, I read laundry lists of “bad ideas” and I think, I could write a thesis, off the top of my head, on most of these things.
Bring those things to me one at a time, and I’ll happily engage in thorough and lively debate and conversation about them. As they were presented, they were some journalist’s opinion about 20 ideas that they considered bad. I have nothing to say about that. That’s his opinion, and he’s entitled to print it, and I’m entitled to ignore it.
I don’t do discussions that are a mile wide and an inch deep.
September 13th, 2024 at 2:05 pm
[...] Note: what are the odds that this post will generate anywhere near the response than did the lipstick on a pig discussion? I am sure that it won’t. Partially because it is lengthy and people tend not to read the [...]