Much is being made all over the intertubes that Obama called Sarah Palin a pig and John McCain a stinky old fish. A fairly reasonable voice, Ben Smith, has a fairly neutral look.
What’s fascinating to me as I’ve watched this story (or is it a non-story?) evolve has been that I’m seeing accusations in print that, so far, I can’t quite find video for. Here is how Ben Smith portrays it:
Obama poked fun of McCain and Palin’s new “change” mantra.
“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.”
OK, now, I’m sure Obama has said those two things, and they are indeed common metaphors. What I haven’t been able to locate so far is video of Obama saying all of those things at once, one leading right into the other as the text above suggests, in a clear context. Because if that’s how it went down then it’s very hard not to conclude that Obama deliberately called Governor Palin a pig and Senator McCain a stinky old fish. In a flippant manner, anyway. But, all the video I’ve seen (so far) looks like this:
Can someone show me unedited video of the fish comment coming immediately after the pig comment, and what he said immediately before and after? Because that would bolster the case that this was a deliberate comparison and juvenile personal attack (probably something off the cuff he didn’t even think about), instead of a common metaphor that Obama has used many many times before anyone even knew about Palin (and that McCain himself has used too).
Somewhere in me there’s a rant about how sad it is that we live in a society where any man criticizing any woman in public is a terrible social sin, but let’s leave that for another day. Calling Palin a pig and calling McCain a stinky old fish would suggest that Obama is shallow, juvenile, or at least has a tin ear. I’m no fan of Mr. Hopeychange, but is that really what happened? Show me.
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Even if intentional, I really don’t care. Rough-and-tumble happens in politics. Deal with it.
But as I alluded in another thread, the Democrats have inflicted this on themselves. In a year where even the mildest criticism of Community Organizer Obama raises cries of racism, the reaction to the lipstick pig remark is extremely mild. And the candidate himself made preemptive false accusations of racism, so he can’t claim clean hands here. Live by the hypersensitivity, die by the hypersensitivity.
All you need to see to decide whether this was an intentional attempt to associate the "lipstick" comment with Sarah Palin is to watch Obama’s timing and body lnaguage as he delivers the line.
The man is not much, but he IS an accomplished public speaker. When he delivers a line, that line is delivered with careful timing. The timing of an observation and the timing of a joke are two different things.
The pause, the body language, and Obama’s reaction to the CROWD reaction all tell me with perfect certainty that he was setting up the line, waiting for it to sink in, waiting for the crowd to "get it" and then delivering the punch line to get the maximum effect.
That all makes sense if he was tying the "lipstick" line to Palin.
That makes NO sense if he was actually making an observation about the McCain/Palin "change" message.
The first is "funny" to the crowd he was speaking to. The second is not. And Obama knows this, believe me. He delivered this as a joke at Palin’s expense.
Anyone who doubts that has no understanding of public speaking, not to mention of modern politics.
It was deliberate, calculated and intended to pay Palin back for her masterful skewering of Obama last week.
You can all believe what you like. The only opinion that matters is the opinon of the public at large. And from what I’m seeing, the majority of independents and WOMEN agree with ME.
We’ll see whether this has legs or not, but the verdict on this has already been handed out by the voting public, and it is NOT good for Obama.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Palin – Jindal 2012!!!
The silver lining to this gray cloud for Obama is that the angry reaction to the lipstick on a pig comment has obscured the much more vile reference to Sarah Palin as a conservative brood-mare.
Obama has a history of this sort of dissing of women. Whether that reveals an inner sexist is up to everyone to decide for themselves, but when his first and most frequent reference to Palin is always about her fecundity, not her record, that message should anger a whole lot more people than the lipstick on a pig comment. One is just an insult, intended or not, the other is perhaps a glimpse into the man’s soul.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Palin – Jindal 2012!!!
Squeal like a pig! Live by the hypersensitivity, die by the hypersensitivity.
So now Obama’s lashing out at the press?
This is too rich. The press and the Kos kids are about the only friends he’s got left!
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Palin – Jindal 2012!!!
I saw it on TV last night, and he said those lines back to back.   There was a rather long pause between the two, and the fish line wasn’t delivered nearly as smoothly.  But unless someone patched the two clips together (and it didn’t appear that way), it was all part of one comment by Obama.Â
I’m pretty sure I saw it on CBS Evening News, although it might have been on Fox later in the night. But today, it’s frustrating as hell trying to find anything longer than that 47 second blurb ……
Funny thing. Â After I made that last comment, I went out to pick up lunch. Â I heard about 5 minutes of Rush Limbaugh on the way, and he actually played audio of the comment. Â He included the pig and the fish comments.Â
So it’s out there somewhere….
The main difference that I see is that when Obama is the target, he gets angry and lashes out. When McCain or Palin are the targets, they see it as an opportunity.
I love how Obama called this reaction "swift-boating."
Apparently if any criticism of Obama can’t be blamed on racism, it becomes "swift-boating" by default.
You know, you can’t make this stuff up. Watching Obama/Biden is going to be a hoot. They may win, but it’s going to be in spite of their gaffes if they do.
They are a virtual gaffe-a-day machine man.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
CC,
I don’t think the "Lipstick on a Pig" was a direct shot at Palin. The only way it would have been a jab is if he said "Lipstick on a Pit Bull". Who knows, maybe he intended to say Pit Bull and misspoke and said Pig. That would have been classic.
This is all Much Ado About Nothing. Just like the attacks on Palin’s family last week.Â
The debates will sort it all out. Palin will crush Biden and McCain will crush Obama.
Jerry
Jerry:
You are welcome to believe what you like. I disagree. I’ve stated why I believe it was deliberate and used references to how and when the line was delivered to back it up. I think it’s pretty clear and obvious, just like Obama’s lame retreat into claims of "swift-boating! swift-boating! waaahhhh!!!!!’ today.
After a year long media enabled coronation, we are beginning to see that the new Emperor’s clothes are…. well…. pretty much absent.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
CC:
I guess I’m just trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. There is plenty ammo to throw at him from the right without the Lipstick stuff. It’s just as low class as when the left insinuated Trig was not her kid.
We don’t need to harp on the stupid lipstick phrase, when there are plenty other REAL issues to zing him on.
Jerky:
It is NOT as low class as the Trig accusation, and frankly I am quite insulted that you have morally equated the two. There are so many reasons they are different that I don’t even want to spend the time listing them, but I’ll start with BRISTOL PALIN IS NOT RUNNING FOR FREAKING PRESIDENT!!!! OK? Obama is a LEGITIMATE TARGET, Bristol Palin IS NOT!
Maybe I’d be more inclined to give Dem/Libs the benefit of the doubt on misspeaking if they didn’t turn every conservative’s misstatement into proof of racism, sexism, homophobism or just rank stupidity.
Maybe you are a nicer guy than I am, and I’m fine with that. I didn’t make these rules, the Democrats did, but I’m sure playing by them now.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
And actually, I thought the “old stinky fish†line was the most offensive bit of the spiel.  I assumed that was being applied to Palin as well.
I mean, it didn’t acttually offend me, but I immediately recognized how some folks would find both lines offensive.
Jay:
I am absolutely certain Obama did too. In fact I am absolutely certain he counted on it. He just didn’t count on the backlash.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
CC:
Jerky??Â
Nice one. Very insightful look at your intellect.Â
It’s true, I am a nicer guy than you.  When I first heard about the Pig comment, I chuckled. It was a poor choice of words.. Then the McCain campaign had to make an AD about it?? WTF is that about?
If McCain chose Romney, the comment would have gotten no play at all. But since he chose a woman, and references to MAKEUP are off limits??? Tell that to Dick Cheney who constantly used the SAME analogy.
Had the teleprompter not flipped out on her, she wouldn’t have made the Hockey Mom/Lipstick joke anyway. I highly doubt that was actually in the speech, I could be wrong though.
Politics as usual, but this is particular lame having McCain throw around sexism charges.
And if i recall correctly, McCain used the same metaphor to describe Hillary Clinton.
JerryK72 is a Republican and a McCain supporter so far as I know. One may or may not agree with his interpretation, but there’s no reason for name calling, or suggesting that his skepticism is based on partisanship. (Actually even if he were an Obama supporter that would not take away his right to be skeptical either, but it’s odd to accuse a Republican of that.)
CC,
how likely is it for obama to have both intended it as a palin slam and not counted on the backlash? one or the other, please, because it strains credibility to believe both. in this day and age of instant youtube reax and hypersensitivity, i doubt obama would have made a play at calling any woman a pig.
how likely is it for obama to have both intended it as a palin slam and not counted on the backlash?
Sorry, zach, but that’s the weakest defense I’ve heard. The "bitter clinging to God and guns" remark proves that the Senator is quite capable of being tone-deaf. He suffers from bubble syndrome, and thus expects people to agree with him.
Jerry:
Heh, that was a pure and total typo. I honestly did not mean to call you "jerky."
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
Dean:
I did not mean to call Jerry names, that was a typo that I didn’t catch. I also know that Jerry is not a liberal and I didn’t accuse him of being one.
You are assuming that if McCain had chosen Romney, Obama would have used the same line. That is pure supposition. I assert with the same level of proof that he would not have used the same line.
As I have said, you all can believe what you like. I think I’m a pretty good reader of people’s intentions and their body language and style. EVERYTHING about that moment screamed to me that Obama was ATTEMPTING to make a subtle dig on Sarah Palin. The problem was that the dig was not subtle. Obama has been in the echo chamber for so long that he has lost his feel for what is, and is not, acceptable in discussing his opponents.
Both of us are arguing that Obama used poor judgment. You are simply saying that his poor judgment was in choosing poor words. I am saying that his poor judment was in thinking he could use those words and get away with it. Either way it’s poor judgment, the problem is that YOUR assertion of poor judgment goes DIRECTLY AGAINST Obama’s acknowledged strength as a writer and a speaker. Mine goes DIRECTLY AGAINST Obama’s obvious weakness in that he underestimates the intelligence of his opponents and the American people. That’s just ONE reason I think I’m right.
By the way, I have not addressed the McCain reaction. I said immediately that they should turn it into a joke to poke back at Obama. I would not have charged Obama with sexism, in fact I would have worn the "Pig" tag with pride. I think McCain is overplaying his hand, but not nearly as badly as Obama did.
I apologize for the typo Jerry. But I have yet to hear you acknowledge that your accusation that my attack on Obama is morally equivalent to the Left’s attack on Bristol Palin was WAY over the top, and frankly much more offensive than my typo was.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
(BTW, I know Cosmic pretty well and “Jerky” did seem out of character for him, FWIW. ;-) )
Cosmic, well, one is always on shaky ground when one attempts to mind-read, so, I’m not sure you know what I’m assuming (or Jerry’s assuming) or not. ;-)
For the record, I’m somewhat ambivalent here and more or less taking an agnostic stance. I’m asking for more information, which I would think should include at least 30 seconds or so before the pig and fish lines, and maybe 30 seconds or so after, and a listen to the crowd.
Based on the poor level of information I have, I suspect that Senator Obama was repeating a line he’s used a bajillion times in other contexts, but he and the crowd (either or both) might have simultaneously realized the juvenile humorousness implicit in the new Post-Convention reality. I suspect that’s the extent of the crime. Somewhat less likely is that most people including the Senator did not really perceive any of that clearly until after the case when the media frenzy hit. Least likely strikes me as a planned, intentional jab at the Alaska Pig Woman. ;-)
I’d never heard this expression (that I can remember), and googled it. The Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lipstick%20on%20a%20pig):
slang for when someone tries to dress something up, but is still that something. usually used on ugly broads, when they put on a skirt and some lipstick and well, they still look like the same digusting pig. "You put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig"
in my objective opinion and based solely on the web site referenced above, the expression is based on an expression "usually" used in a blatant sexist context. Until I read that and not having prior exposure to the expression, I thought it was a tempest in a teapot, have since come to the conclusion that it is an expression rooted in sexism. It may be significant to protest, particulary since there have complaints about McCain use of imagery with baggage for Afro-Am. in the not-to-distant past…
…but he and the crowd (either or both) might have simultaneously realized the juvenile humorousness implicit in the whole thing. I suspect that’s the extent of the crime.
That’s how I hear the audio, Dean. I honestly hear him giving the opening of a stock line (all public speakers have a pile of stock lines that get them through), then halting briefly as he realizes "Oh, no, did I just say that?" And then his pause lets the audience think "What did he just say?" And then, not realizing how he sees it, they think it’s a laugh line, and they laugh. Meanwhile, he stops for the laugh, and realizes that at this point, he has no choice but to finish the line. Stopping and thinking at a time like that can throw off the rest of your timing and leave you a mess.
I have zero evidence that that’s what happened. But as a public speaker, I’ve had things a lot like it happen. Public speaking — even with a prepared script, and moreso ad lib — requires you to run your brain on multiple tracks at once. One track is talking, one track is thinking about what you’re going to say next, one track is watching for audience reaction, and one track is watching your style and cadence. If it’s impromptu, yet another track is planning your strategy down the road. But if you’re not careful, you can get in an "override" track that thinks about how impossible it is to run all these tracks simultaneously; and like the centipede in the old joke, you may stop being able to if you stop and think. So sometimes you notice you’re about to say something dumb as you say it, and just have to bull it through.
P Mike: Well, to go by a strict analysis of the text alone, absent the Obama/Palin context, I would have to say that I have some issues with the Urban Dictionary’s definition.
It is plausible that the term has its origins in calling women pigs. It is certainly something you would expect catty, nasty women to say about each other (women be nasty to each other that way, REALLY?!?!?) or that a crude boorish man might say of a woman.
However, I myself have used that phrase many times. It’s long been one of my favorites. And I have heard it used in many political contexts. I usually say something like "you can put all the lipstick on that pig you want, but it’s still gonna be a pig," and I can’t recall ever using it to describe a woman’s appearance. I’ve always used to to refer colorfully to a situation wherein something awful may be slightly prettied up by something else, but you just can’t get away from the rotton core at the center (to use another, similar metaphor).
A closely related one that I’ve always liked is "turd in the punchbowl." You have this nice pretty bowl of punch, maybe it’s fancy crystal with cool carvings, a beautiful silver ladle, a pretty bright color to the punch, maybe some nicely carved bits of lemon and other fresh fruits floating in it… but someone’s pooped in it, which ruins the entire affair. So, if I were inclined to use that metaphor on Senator Obama, I might say something like "He’s smart, sophisticated, charismatic, unapologetically patriotic, represents a lot of people’s hopes and dreams for a post-racial America, has a great family and kids, has many policy positions and attitudes I like… but the turd in the punchbowl is that he’s callow and inexperienced and just not ready for the job."
Now I suppose that, for example, one of the Clintons might have uttered that line. (I didn’t say they did, I just think it’s perceivable that they might.) I also suppose that if they said it, some people would claim they had said Obama was a turd and maybe even tried to make something racial out of it. But that would not be clear in that (hypothetical) context.
I don’t think this is all that clear either. I lean more toward "it didn’t become obvious how it sounded until the instant it was said."
martin,
fair enough. but it seems to me that SO much hay has been made about how difficult it will be for dems to go after palin because she’s a woman, SO many charges of sexism have been rocketing out of mccain’s camp, and the whole "puma" phenomenon SO overhyped, that it would transcend even tone-deafness to have intended the insult as it was taken. i don’t know that i think obama suffers particularly from bubble syndrome, no more at least than most politicians, but even granting that, the bubble would have to be pretty thick on this one.
Martin: I agree with every word of that. Funny how often that happens. It merely attests to your intelligence and perspicuity. ;-) Seriously, as someone who’s done a lot of public speaking, I know EXACTLY what you mean. That’s about as perfect a description as I can imagine.
Dean:
All of the defenses of Obama are based on him not realizing the potentially charged nature of the line. Since Obama does nothing BUT assert the charged nature of any line used against him, I am simply not going to give him that out. Anyone as hysterically enslaved to the PC agenda as Obama should not get a pass for abusing that same code.
He knew. That’s all I’m saying. As I have said all along you all can cut him whatever slack you want to. I won’t. He knew. Period.
Jerry. Still waiting for Mr. Nice Guy to acknowledge how morally equating my attack on Obama to the Left’s attack on a pregnant 17 year old girl was anything but nice at all. Still waiting.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
By the way, funniest thing like that I experienced as a public speaker was when I was out at Chrysler’s corporate HQ complex teaching IT project managers some SDLC stuff, and somehow or other, I’m not clearly remembering, the subject of piracy came up. It may even have been Talk Like A Pirate Day, now that I think on it. Anyway one of the women said something in Pirate-talk, and I responded in pirate-talk saying "give me yer booty."
I immediately clapped my hands over my mouth as the whole class, including the woman, laughed. Which was lucky as I might otherwise have been fired that very day for sexual harrassment.
Cosmic: Well, you can refuse to cut any slack if you wish, and that’s fine. I can see your argument on that score. I won’t quite buy the idea that Democrats started it, since this sort of pouncing on every flub, burp, fart, and nose-pick by a Presidential candidate (or President) has been going on for a long time. I remember back in the early 1990s, when he was just becoming big, I initially found Rush Limbaugh a humorous and refreshing change of pace compared to so much of what was found in media commentary in that era. I disagreed with many of his stances but he was damn well funny and Politically Incorrect, in times (the ’80s and early ’90s) which were the most rigidly PC years of my life or yours. (And since that was around the time we first met, and we’re close to the same age, you probably have similar memories).
I began to tire of Limbaugh on the day of President Clinton’s first inauguration, which I guess would be January 1993. I was listening to El Rushbo as he commented on President Clinton’s soaring inaugural address. Every sentence or so, sometimes in mid-sentence, he would bellow "stop the tape!" and begin to harangue the new President, asserting what the President "really meant" or was secretly implying by this, that, or the other phrase or even individual word (or “code word”), so as to "de-program" his listeners and let them in on the President’s "true agenda." It wasn’t just rather irrational and tacky, it made me finally back up and say, "oh, Rush, I thought you were mostly a conservative entertainer, but you’re actually serious with this garbage aren’t you?" Since then I’ve still been able to listen to him now and then, but I can never get away from the realization that he’s first and foremost a partisan hack.
Sadly, I had a similar experience with Jon Stewart and his Daily Show, which long ago went from a humorous show with a slightly predictable Hollywood/New York media-elite-fashionable-leftism but a genuine sense of their being humorists first and foremost, to just another group of shills for the Democratic Party. Although in their defense, they seem to have gotten away from that somewhat, I can never quite get that sour taste out of my mouth whenever I see or hear Jon Stewart.
Speaking of the urban dictionary, if you’ve got the nerve for it…. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?page=2&term=fishÂ
Just sayin….Â
I guess my whole take on this is that, at absolute best, it was naïve of Obama to say these things.Â
McCain’s reaction wasn’t called for, but it helped keep the story in the news cycle for another day, so it was probably a good move. Obama’s reaction to McCain’s accusation seems a bit over the top to me. Â
But I admit,  I’m biased.  I derive some mildly evil pleasure watching “sexism†and “ageism†charges being fired back at the party that has played the “ism†game for so long. Paybacks are a bitch, so to speak…. Â
I do think the Republicans could go overboard with it if they’re not careful. But I don’t think they crossed that line with this one.
Dean:
I completely agree with you. I have never liked Rush Limbaugh and have an even more averse reaction to Ann Coulter, and to a lesser degree, even Laura Ingraham.
I guess maybe I’m starting to get too partisan myself. I had been trying for months to stay out of the political mix (which is why I was so rarely on your site for most of the summer) but I have to admit, choosing Sarah Palin has caused me to get back into it.
I will concede that there is a mathematically significant probabilty that Martin’s scenario or something like it happened. However, I think the probability is much higher that Obama was trying to out-Palin Palin and stuck his foot in his mouth up to his thigh.
The worst thing about this for Obama is that the most charitable interpretation of his remarks are still significantly damaging to his credibility. Either he’s a tool or a fool, or maybe both. The bare fact that a majority of respondents to polls I’ve seen believe that this was an attack on Palin indicates that Obama either intended it that way, or he has a remarkably selective ear when it comes to offensive speech. He catches anything aimed at HIM but blissfully overlooks anything aimed at others. That’s not a good image to project.
I think this is a significant event in the campaign. Sure he can still recover, but this begs the question of why Obama is going after Palin AT ALL. That’s not very Presidential of him. You don’t see McCain going after Biden. It’s not seemly.
No matter how you slice it, ALL of this controversy DIRECTLY feeds and inflames the very meme the McCain campaign has been hammering about Obama.
He’s not ready to lead.
You know, he really isn’t.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
Calm yourself down a bit CC.
Now if I were a liberal and I equated what you claim I did, then you could have your hissy fit.
I am as conservative as they come. When I was referring to Palin’s family my concern was for the newborn rather than the 17 year old. All the hoopla about how Sarah isn’t Trig’s mom. It was like a made for TV drama. It was quite stupid.
The fact that the McCain campaign is coming out hard against the "Pig" comment, it makes the "Pitbull" Palin look like a helpless "Puppy".
Jerry:
Still waiting.
Just to remind you, here is what you said:
“I guess I’m just trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. There is plenty ammo to throw at him from the right without the Lipstick stuff. It’s just as low class as when the left insinuated Trig was not her kid.”
Like I said. Still waiting.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
CC: Well actually if you’d been around this summer you might have noticed there was relatively little politics here other than minor coverage. Most sane people are not interested in politics in the summer months, they’ve got more important things to do (like play with their kids). I’m amused to say that this year has surprised me in one sense: traditionally, the "real" Presidential campaign begins right after labor day. The last few election cycles have not been that way, but this year seems to be a return to form: interest tic’d up during the two conventions, simmered down a bit, and then picked up right around September 2. The only thing more than mildly interesting until then was whether the Dems would give us Clinton or Obama, and the fat lady (gasp, might that have been another SEXIST METAPHOR?!?!?!) was already singing on that one weeks before the conventions.
CC:
Dude, get over yourself. You’ll be waiting a long time.
You changed your tune. First you said:
It is NOT as low class as the Trig accusation, and frankly I am quite insulted that you have morally equated the two.
Then you said:
Jerry. Still waiting for Mr. Nice Guy to acknowledge how morally equating my attack on Obama to the Left’s attack on a pregnant 17 year old girl was anything but nice at all. Still waiting.
Your spin machine must be working overdrive.
If anything, I equated calling a woman a "Pig" to calling a Woman a "pregnancy faker". Both are equally low blows in my opinion. Period.
Jerry:
The Left did not just call Sarah Palin a ‘pregnancy faker’ and I can only assume that you are being intentionally disingenuous to assert this.
They claimed that she was hiding her daughter’s pregnancy and accompanied that with photos of Bristol Palin which were viciously attacked and dissected.
You seem to be claiming that the Left only made some vague claims about Sarah faking her pregnancy. That is simply not the case. If this is your defense of your attack, it’s as lame as Obama’s is.
By the way, I fail to see any significant difference in the two quotes you posted above. The "Trig accusation" WAS the attack on Bristol.
You realize that, don’t you?
Don’t you?
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
LABOR DAY??!?!?!?
Yet another sexist remark!!Â
And see where it led?
It’s all about the women having babies…. ;)
jay:
you laugh, but listen to Joe Biden and Obama speak about Sarah Palin. So far they have been unable to speak of her without mentioning her "five children." Obama yesterday, in the same speech as the "lipstick" crack, listed ONLY being the mother of five children as an accomplishment of Sarah Palin.
If you think this is accidental….. well….
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
Oh, Jerry… another point of order since you seem to be into debate revisionism as a secondary vocation…
You did not "equate calling a woman a ‘pig’ with calling a woman a ‘pregnancy faker’."
You equated MY assertion that Obama INTENTIONALLY called Palin a pig with the Left’s accusation that Trig Palin was the illegitimate son of Bristol Palin and that Sarah Palin had conspired for months to fake a pregnancy to protect her daughter.
I have to say if this is your level of analysis and debate, it’s no wonder you are so willing to give Obama a pass.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
Let’s see:
Lipstick, pigs and dead fish in newspapers stink.
The guy on the democrat side running for President might help himself by jumping back into the empty suit that sits next to the flag and the teleprompter directly in front of the TV cameras.
He sure isn’t doing much good without those three plus his carefully crafted, written, talking points.
Isn’t Obama supposed to be a successful lawyer ? He sure doesn’t talk like one.
Does anyone know if he has any successful courtroom experience ?
Seems like he is a genuine public bully like his former pastor in Chicago.
I don’t see Obama as a "bully." Unless he is a special breed of passive-aggressive bully who specializes in cowering from any opposition and crying "unfair! unfair! you’re bigger than me!"
Which is a sort of bully I guess, especially when the opposition is either not hurting him, or not bigger than him. And it’s pretty hard to get much bigger than candidate for President of the United States.
I really have to wonder what the great undecided middle in the country is thinking as they watch this drama unfold. To me it’s a stunning spectacle of a campaign in full panic mode, led by a man who can’t seem to stop himself from lashing out blindly at anything and everything he sees as opposing him.
The only significant shift I’ve seen in the polls so far has been among white women, and that is plausibly explained by a sense of solidarity many women (my wife included) have with Sarah Palin. Of course pretty soon we are going to hear Obama’s sycophantic surrogates in the press suggesting, if not outright asserting, that these women are all racists, but that’s just the nattering of the nabobs of negativity all over again.
The question is whether this is affecting young voters, Reagan Democrats or minorities (particularly hispanic voters).
I guess we won’t know that until probably Monday, when the tracking polls start picking up the results of the end of the week’s activities.
It is hard for me to imagine that this has not damaged Obama significantly, especially in "can do" states who have a history of self-reliance such as Ohio or perhaps Pennsylvania.
Next week might get very, very interesting when the poll numbers come out.
We may see how Obama campaigns as an underdog.
Perhaps we’re seeing that already.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Swift-boating the election
Maybe some polls will come in tomorrow.
I believe Oz..bama, meant his pig and lipstick remark against Palin. He is a baby. Palin came on the scene and took away his thunder. The pauses in his remark make it quite clear. He is intimated by her and so is Biden.
Palin used the lipstick line in such a funny, funny way. Her husband broke out laughing along with other men and women in the convention. I loved it. I believe she has ownership of a new and funny line. Ozbama has been crying since Palin did such a great job of comparing a community (whatever;-), to a Mayor. He is still smarting from that and is green with jealousy.
McCain has used a pig and lipstick but his timing is different. McCain came back with a good ad, Ozbama cried over that too.
Ozbama should talk about McCain and not Palin. That right there tells me so much about the empty suit.
I do not like Ozbama, and I’m sure it is obvious ;-)
Well, Janelle,
Obviously you are not an expert on bully’s like Cosmic is, who also seems to be an expert on this thread on how we’all shud think.
Then, again, one can know the Obammacrats are in trouble when Senator Barbara Boxer shows up on the tube with her botox skin, fake eyelashes, eyebrows, and carefully dyed hair to announce to the world how mistreating OHB and what cynical, horrific McCainiac’s are doing to this Messiah-like -genius from south Chicago or parts elsewhere in the 57 states of America.
I like that Mc Kiernan ;-)Â Oh goodness me, Barbara Boxer is so silly!
After listening again, I’m convinced that my "Oops" theory is pretty close to accurate. That makes it a minor verbal misstep.
This is a major verbal misstep: Senator Biden says maybe Senator Obama should’ve chosen Senato Clinton. Did someone say Eagleton?
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