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Can Political Discourse Get Any Dumber?

Posted by ANGELA WINTERS in Politics, Society.
Sep 10th, 2008 | Comments

I guess by blogging about this ridiculous “lipstick” controversy I am participating in the press orgy over the topic, but I’m very confused. Why would the Red team use a ploy that would be a sure sign of desperation when they are doing so well? Will it work? I know this country is not made up of geniuses (myself included), but are people that stupid?

Maybe I have too much faith in the American people, but I just don’t get that they’ll fall for this. They’ll laugh about it and those who can’t stand Obama will use it to dig at him, but no one really believes that he was calling Palin a pig. Right? The Republicans hope is that working-class Americans and women are so stupid that they will believe that this phrase, commonly used for approximately the last century or so, and clearly explained in the context of his speech, was meant as an insult to Palin personally, women and of course the working-class whom Palin is supposed to represent. These same working class voters and women who have likely used the phrase several times in their own lives will suddenly buy that now that Palin used her “lipstick/hockey mom/bull dog” joke in a speech a week ago, the phrase somehow can only refer to her.

I saw on FOX NEWS this morning some vacant-looking female anchor say that, now that a woman is in the contest the Dems need to be careful of what they say because they risk looking sexist. Is this the line the Republicans (who speak curiously similar to FOX NEWS anchors) are going to go with? These same Republicans who go into a rage if you told them that now that a black man is in the contest, they have to be careful of what they say because it might be interpreted as racist. How can you make accusations of the race card while hiding behind the gender card?

What is the official word from Palin? My first impressions of her is that she is tough, strong and very practical and not the type of woman who wants to be “protected” this way.

‘Lipstick on a pig’: Attack on Palin or common line? – CNN.com
Pigs and lipstick? The campaign gets really weird csmonitor.com

The Associated Press: Lipstick put to more than one use in campaign
Smear or playing ‘gender card?’ – 2008 Presidential Campaign Blog – Political Intelligence – Boston.com
USNews.com: Obama Courts Trouble With “Lipstick On A Pig” Comment
Lipstick On A Pig, By Steve Benen – CBS News
McCain Runs Web Ad About Obama’s “Lipstick On A Pig” Comment AHN
Lipstick on a pig: A ‘dog that don’t hunt’: The Swamp

  • DLS
    The left (including the media) are in a frenzy because Palin is doing so well. (They stoop low in attacking Palin at their own risk of keeping their Obama out of the White House.) They're more emotional than normal, which is why they're so sensitive to trivia like this lipstick silliness. McCain-Palin are not desperate; they currently are riding a wave of optimism and surprising success for nearly two weeks, for a Change [tm]. "That's not supposed to happen!" Hence the excess we observe.
  • superdestroyer
    when you have had black politicians get exctied about niggardly, black hole, and picnic, then yes, the rest of us should be able to be picky about the words used.

    Can you please provide references where you have accused blacks of being too thin skinned?
  • SD and jwest,
    And what did it mean when McCain used the same term when talking about Clinton's health care plan? Don't duck and dodge this one.

    While [McCain] said he had not studied Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's health-care plan, he said it was "eerily reminiscent" of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the early 1990s.

    "I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," [McCain] said of [Hillary Clinton's] proposal.
  • Silhouette
    "Is this the line the Republicans (who speak curiously similar to FOX NEWS anchors) are going to go with?"
    ********

    Ahhhhh Grasshopper. You noticed.

    The "liberal media" is indeed a myth, promoted to divert, confuse and befuddle.

    We know whose pocket mainstream media sits in. We weren't born yesterday. I love one reporter's comment about a bit she did, "hey, I only say what they want me to say in the briefing room."...and she laughed.

    There's more to that than you want to know..
  • Rudi
    The folks at Reason's blog put the lipstick on the Republican pigs.
    http://www.reason.com/blog/show/128711.html
    Driving home last night, I caught a few minutes of a right-wing talk radio show (one that had surely never aired a sexist remark about Hillary Clinton) and heard the spin that, well, Obama must have been making a sexist comment because presidential candidates don't talk like this. Take it, Dick Cheney.

    John Kerry is trying every which way to cover up his record of weakness on national defense. But he can't do it. It won't work. As we like to say in Wyoming, you can put all the lipstick you want on that pig, but at the end of the day, it's still a pig.

    I guess it was OK when Chenney says it, but now it's "sexist". Talk about flip-flops...
  • jwest
    Chris,

    The lipstick phrase is a common, innocent cliché.

    Barack is just being ripped because the liberals and press overreached when she was announced as the VP pick.

    Is it fair? Probably not.

    Some days, it just sucks to be a Democrat.
  • elrod
    DLS,
    Strangely enough, you'd think that if McCain was doing so well he wouldn't make the "lipstick on a pig" reference into a sexist attack. THAT was the act of desperation. Why did they play the gender card?

    It's like when Obama made the dollar bill comment this summer. It was seen, rightly, as a desperate play of the race card.

    It seems the McCain people panicked here. Fortunately for Obama he's calling this BS out.
  • superdestroyer
    I love how the party of the political correctness seems like they hate political correctness when it is applied to them.

    Much like adultry hurts Repubicans much more than Democrats because it makes Repubicans look like hypocrites, the same applies to Democrats and political correctness. Remember, under political correctness, it is the people who are insulted who get to determine the intent of the peaker.

    If the Democrats do not want to be judged on their insults, then the Democrats should renounce political correctness.
  • SD,
    You should respond to my comment.
  • superdestroyer
    ChrisWWW

    Republicans should be allowed to be insulting because they tend to not follow political correctness. However, when the Democrats nominate the most politically correct candidate ever, then they should play by the rules that they have set.

    Or the Democrats can shut up about hate speech or code words and start talking about issues. However, I doubt that the hypocrites in the Democrats Party want to give up on their use of hidden meanings to keep certain poitical groups in line.
  • SD,
    You didn't answer the question. What did it mean when McCain used the same metaphor?

    Either it's sexist in both circumstances, or it's sexist in neither. I want you on record here.
  • undertoad
    Obama didn't intend to mean it that way. The guy has remarkable poise. He's not going to gaffe it on something like that.

    However, McCain's staff have their ears up for anything that can be interpreted as sexist. And frankly, what a great strategy.

    They're waiting for their Mamama moment.
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