Of Pigs & Lipstick

September 10, 2008 by Randy
Filed under Activism, Culture War, Current Affairs

I wonder what shade Miss Piggy would recommend?

When I first heard about Barack Obama’s statement I was confused for a good minute about what the big deal was. I had heard the saying, “you can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig” many times throughout life. I knew he was saying that in reference to McCain’s policies. I never even remembered Palin’s lipstick joke about herself and Hockey Mom’s until the media tied the two together.

The cynical part of me will occasionally wonder if Obama contrived it that way in hopes that it would speak one way to his base (slamming Palin) but still seem innocent. He does that well in other ways. I hope my initial impression is true about this though.

Even so, it was a stupid thing to say and I bet he is kicking himself for saying it. Obama’s response today of “spare me the phony outrage” isn’t very professional either.

But there is SO many other nyah nyah accusations going back and forth today … it’s all rather futile. Not much change happening (from either camp) on this part of the campaign trail.

… moving on …

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Tags: Activism, Barack Obama, Culture War, Election '08, John McCain, People, Politics, Sarah Palin, Scandal, Untitled

Viewing 22 Comments

B.T.Carolus 09/10/2008 08:41 PM 1 point
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I think it's Miss Piggy, not Ms.

Refering to somebody (especially a lady) as a pig is mean, even if you were using an idiom.

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Randy 09/10/2008 08:46 PM 1 point
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Good eye... I'll correct it. I am still not convinced he was referring to Palin.

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Joe Brummer 09/10/2008 10:07 PM 1 point
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I absolutely Agree with you and Ellie! Not sure how that comment was ever considered clever, but I suppose it is up there with the walk like a duck thing....

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http://www.joebrummer.com

Randy 09/10/2008 10:21 PM 1 point
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I agree with Ellie too.

HI JOE!

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B.T.Carolus 09/11/2008 12:41 AM 1 point
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Wow, everybody agrees with me. I feel special now, just like Miss Piggy in that picture. :::strikes dramatic pose:::

I've been wondering, how do all of these undecided voters decide who to vote for? It seems like politics is so surface level (what with a whole news cycle devoted to a pig quote), and nobody ever addresses 'the issues' in any kind of depth, while all the while complaining about the fact that nobody ever talks about the issues (kind of like me right now). If it weren't for the fact that I vote based on a few very specific criteria, I don't think I'd ever be able to figure out which circles to ink on my ballot.

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Randy 09/11/2008 09:35 PM 1 point
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Hey Ellie, I didn't know if you got notified of all comments on the thread or just ones that were directly replying to you. This is kind of a test to figure that out.

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B.T.Carolus 09/11/2008 10:18 PM 1 point
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No, we only get notified of comments that are within strings that we've commented in. But I was aware of the other comments. Just waiting until I had more time to answer (although right now I'm in the middle of an allergy attack, so still not at my best).

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Randy 09/12/2008 12:57 AM 1 point
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Ugh, I am not stranger to allergy attacks. You have my prayers.

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Leo 09/11/2008 02:02 AM 1 point
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Ellie: was the use of that particular idiom also mean when McCain used it about the policies of Hillary Clinton?

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Randy 09/11/2008 09:34 PM 1 point
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Hey Leo, if you click the reply link under her comment it will notify her of your follow up comment (I think :)) Forgive the repeat of my comment to Mensley.

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B.T.Carolus 09/11/2008 10:31 PM 1 point
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There is no mainstream connection that has ever been directly made between Clinton and lipstick or pigs (although I'm sure somebody somewhere has written a blog post and called Hillary a pig), especially on the magnitude of the Palin lipstick connection. Everything that politicians say in their speeches goes through multiple brilliant people working for them, as well as the politician. There is no way that any one of them could have missed the fact that people would make the connection.

If you remember back a few years, Kerry made a similar gaff when he implied that our troops were 'uneducated' (ie, stupid) and 'stuck in Iraq' and then tried to pretend that his words had been misunderstood. If you go and look at what he said, it was carefully calculated so that he could make that insult without being called out. Unfortunately for Kerry, neither the American people nor her troops are stupid or uneducated, so he created a huge PR catastrophe. Obama can't get away with directly calling Palin a pig, and so his people came up with a way to make the connection without actually stooping to blatant namecalling, knowing that his audience would understand the implications of the idiom. Which they did; the line was followed by thunderous laughter and applause.

So basically, I think that McCain was using the idiom to attack his opponent's policies, and Obama was using it to slyly attack his opponent.

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Randy 09/12/2008 12:55 AM 1 point
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Well, while I totally missed the reference being tied to Palin's lipstick joke. I did see the footage again and the crowd obviously made that connection.

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Mensley 09/11/2008 09:23 AM 1 point
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Ellie, I was wondering the same thing. I mean, even if either candidate did intentionally make a stupid remark like that, I don't think it would affect who I was voting for. After all, I'm basing my vote on the policies and values that the candidate promises to fight for... not whether they offend certain people with idle comments.

I agree it's stupid that the media makes it seem like the election is about this kind of garbage far more than it is about the state of our nation.

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http://mikeensley.vox.com

Randy 09/11/2008 09:32 PM 1 point
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Hey Mensley, if you click the reply link under her comment, and leave a message that way, it will notify her of your follow up comment (I think :))

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B.T.Carolus 09/11/2008 10:40 PM 1 point
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Exactly. I guess we are people that have firm ideas about what we believe and want in a leader. I just can't imagine that the state of Ohio (a famous swing state, right?) is filled with people who are actively educating themselves on the issues, and also don't have enough strong convictions one way or the other to make a firm, early decision on who to vote for. Which makes it seem like the smear campaigns might be way more important (and potentially detrimental) to the race than anyone would like.

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Janey 09/12/2008 05:09 AM 1 point
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ok, Ellie, I think you're too funny!

I don't think the lipstick on a pig was in reference to Palin. I think that it was just a poor choice of words used and perhaps, I'd also agree with Randy that, well, in my words, the back and forth game is exhausting and I'd like to see Politics that don't get like that.

Canada is beginning an election campaign and sad to say is that it's beginning to look like the Presidential campaign ... you can put a lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig...lol....not that I am saying this is a bad thing but this is just my observation. Canada is becoming more and more like the States. I could go on but I don't want to both the yankee's and southerners with Canadian stuff. :)

Perhaps Obama just didn't make a wise choice in words given what Palin had said prior.

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Randy 09/12/2008 11:53 AM 1 point
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Janey, if you click reply under a specific comment and leave a comment that way, the author of the original comment will be notified of your follow up.

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Janey 09/12/2008 03:45 PM 1 point
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Just wondering....did it work :) lol.... I think you guy's had mentioned that in earlier postings.

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B.T.Carolus 09/12/2008 04:08 PM 1 point
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Janey,

The problem with what you're presuming happened is that Obama didn't make "a poor choice of words" on the spur of the moment. His public statements and speeches are written for him by his staff, and reviewed by himself and multiple members of that staff. There is no way that a room full of a dozen very smart people who have been completely immersed in this campaign missed the fact that the line about lipstick would be seen as a reference to the most popular and important line of Palin's acceptance speech, but that an audience immediately picked up on it.

American political speeches very often tend to be composed of lines that are oblique references to much larger issues (rather than speeches about the large issues, hence the lack of depth in our campaign coverage). Because of this audiences are listening to every line and trying to fill in the references. Obama's speech writers know this, and they would have realized what people were going to assume he meant, even if they didn't originally intend that meaning. They chose not to fill in with another idiom, and this reaction is what they're getting for it.

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Janey 09/12/2008 05:09 PM 1 point
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Well, that might be so, but he along with all of his team still make a choice that wasn't exactly the best choice. I think we can agree on that one.

But then again, I think with Obama he just might have the tenacity to say something live that hadn't been rehersed before hand. He gives me that kind of impression. I can almost hear his team saying, "Obama, what were you thinking out there?"

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Of Pigs & Lipstick

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