Lipstick on a pig; smearing

We all knew this time would come. It's inevitable in this day and age. When politicians begin fighting for swing states, they often resort to bashing their opponents instead of trying to gain more ground by talking about important issues. Yes, it's the smearing season--the time when more people avoid politics than ever, when debates degrade into childish banter, when even politicians themselves begin to grow sick of insults. Face it--it's easier to toss insults around, but it takes more work to gain people's trust.

The first major attack has occurred. CNN News has been covering a story about a comment Barack Obama made while giving a speech in Virginia. Obama spoke sarcastically about McCain's ideals, saying how similar McCain's ideals are to those of President Bush.

Here is an excerpt from a CNN article. Obama is the speaker.

"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 going to shake things up in Washington,'" he said.

"That's not change. That's just calling something the same thing something different. You know you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

The McCain campaign is demanding an apology; they are accusing Obama of using the pig comment as a direct attack on Sarah Palin, who made a lipstick joke at the beginning of the Republican convention. She said something to the degree of 'What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.'

Even though CNN has a hard lean to the liberal side, I have to agree with them on this one in questioning the true intentions of Obama's remark. Was he making a stab at Sarah Palin? I don't think so. The comment came directly after remarks on McCain's ideals; I'm not sure how the Republicans managed to connect it with Palin. To me, this makes Republicans look pretty bad--or at least the McCain campaign. They are so desperate for dirt on their opponent that they resorted to this, which indicates weakness. McCain appears to be losing favor, which frankly doesn't surprise me.


Sinderbrand, Rebecca. " 'Lipstick on a pig': Attack on Palin or common line?." CNN.com. 10 Sep 2008. CNN. 8pm 10 Sep 2008 .