The Lipstick Thing: What It Does And Doesn't Mean

The latest gaffe/controversy to explode onto the political scene comes from an Obama campaign rally yesterday in Virginia, where he said this:

"You know, you can put lipstick on a pig," Obama said, "but it's still a pig."

Now, the Right has jumped all over this as a dig at Palin's previous comment of lipstick being the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom (in reference to herself), calling it another example of sexism.

I think that's ridiculous.

If you look at the context of the speech, you'll see that Obama was clearly talking about how McCain-Palin are promising change, but don't really present any change at all from Bush's policies.  While this is not something I agree with, I think that the lipstick-on-a-pig saying is a perfectly legitimate way to convey his point in a humorous way.  I suppose it's possible that Obama was, in fact, taking a dig at Palin, but I think that the Right is reaching on this one.

There are far more substantial things (i.e. issues!) on which we need to hammer Obama, not these maybe-possibly-could-be 'smears'.  If the Right isn't careful, they'll go overboard into stupidity like the Left does on a regular basis, and that would undermine the considerable credibility they've built up defending the real smears against Palin over the past couple weeks.

I would, however, like to point out another thing from this incident.  If you look at the video (to be posted later), you'll see Obama speaking haltingly, uncertainly, clearly working hard to frame the saying correctly.  This is another example of how the Obamessiah is tremendously bad without a teleprompter.  These gaffes happen regularly when Obama is speaking off the cuff, and, taken collectively, show us that he simply isn't ready to handle the Presidency, which does far more in real-time conversation than it does in planned and rehearsed speeches with a teleprompter.

I like Mark Krikorian's suggestion:

[T]he campaign shouldn't whine about the lipstick on a pig comment. Instead, Gov. Palin should simply start each appearance by pausing briefly at the podium to touch up her lipstick, and then move on. People who get the joke will love it, and those who don't will have it explained to them by others, ensuring that pretty soon, even those who don't follow the news will hear about it, to Obama's detriment.

That's the way to go.

There's my two cents.