Lipstick-Gate

By Anastacia Mott Austin

It's official. The mud-slinging has begun. And it started, appropriately, over accusations of pig-calling.

It all began with an Obama campaign stop in Virginia. "John McCain says he's about change too," said the candidate to the assembled crowd. "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."

Added Obama, "That's not change. That's just calling the same thing something different. But you can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, and it's still going to stink after eight years."

Then everyone went crazy. How dare you call Sarah Palin a pig!, they shouted.

Wait...what?

The McCain campaign lost no time in pouncing on the remark by Obama, saying it was a reference to Sarah Palin's comment about hockey moms being pit bulls in lipstick. (Her actual quote: "You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.")

We should note that McCain did not seem to take offense at being called a stinky old fish.

Palin supporter Jane Swift, proud member of the newly formed "Palin Truth Squad" and former Massachusetts governor, told reporters, "Ultimately, I think the American people will realize that calling a very prominent female governor of one of our states a pig is not exactly what we want to see when we [supposedly] are going to have this great debate that is the politics of hope."

I can't say that the reference wasn't directed at Palin, but Obama sure is irritated now. He claims that the expression is an old aphorism, used long before Sarah Palin was a candidate for vice president.

The Cambridge International Dictionary explains the expression as putting slight, cosmetic changes on something to make it more appealing without making any substantive change to it.

Other searches offer similar explanations, sometimes substituting a frog or donkey for the pig (though an Obama reference to lipstick on a donkey probably wouldn't have worked well for him).

Said to be southern in origin, the statement is often followed by, "[Putting lipstick on a pig] is a waste of time. And it annoys the pig."

Obama wasted no time in responding to what he called the "pathetic" attempts by his opponent to involve him in a smear campaign he says never happened.

Obama campaign representative Anita Dunn called the McCain accusation "...a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy."

In fact, McCain himself used the expression last year when (ironically) criticizing the health care plan proposed by Hillary Clinton, saying it was too similar to the one she suggested while Bill Clinton was in office. "I think they put some lipstick on the pig, "said McCain at the time. "But it's still a pig."

Obama himself says that the "made-up" scandal has distracted voters from what is essential during this election - the issues.

"They would much rather have the story about phony and foolish diversions than about the future," said Obama at a town hall meeting about education in Virginia.

After listing the woes facing our nation, such as the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the energy crisis, Obama asked the crowd, "This [diversion] is what they want to talk about? This is what they want to spend two of the last 55 days talking about?"

The candidate then explained his plan for the remainder of the election season. "We are just going to keep on presenting the facts, truthfully, forcefully, consistently every day. We are going to hammer away at the fact that the stakes in this election are too high," said Obama.

"And I trust the American people to pay attention."