Comments on: Liar liar in a fiery, smolding pair of pants

By: Time for another edition of catch-up linkage. « Small-Town Elitist

Time for another edition of catch-up linkage. « Small-Town Elitist — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:43:31 +0000

[...] offers up some truthiness to combat the McCain campaign’s [...]

By: fifilaroach

fifilaroach — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:15:55 +0000

I am so tired of the repubs using ANYTHING and I do mean ANYTHING to jab at Obama with that I could puke. I’m ready for him to just let McCain have it. I wish he’d just up and read him the riot act. A man can only take so much!

By: Dumle

Dumle — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:14:35 +0000

I think it’s obvious that Obama used this phrase with Palins comment in mind. But so what, that doesn’t mean it’s sexist or a personal attack on Palin. It’s just good rhetoric. I don’t see why he can’t play on other candidates words. I bet he has played on some of McCains words in the past. So has McCain in regards to Obama. It’s politics, it’s rhetoric. But not sexist or any kind of personal attack.

On the other side though, Obama probably shouldn’t have said what he said, but who could know the republicans would spin this? It’s absurd!

By: Briar

Briar — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:22:11 +0000

“But “lipstick on a pig” as a dig at Palin, or even as a negative reference to women and/or femininity in general, I’m not at all buying.” One wouldn’t, without the context of a praised line in Palin’s own speech. That makes it a reference to her, with enough deniablity for Obama to pretend he didn’t mean it (and divert a lot of energy into discussing this instead of his many other flaws). If only as much passion had been spent defending Hillary Clinton against the far more ridiculous claim that her reference to RFK amounted to putting out a contract on Obama.

By: Cara

Cara — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:54:04 +0000

I agree with Jamelle on the issue of whether or not the phrase is literal. I’ve always taken it literally, as being about the animal with a snout that rolls around in dirt. That being said, something has always rubbed me as slightly off about the phrase, which is partially why I don’t use it. And I honestly think that you can make arguments about whether or not it’s sexist in either direction. I do think that calling Obama sexist on the basis of using a very common if silly phrase towards a concept rather than a person is rather iffy. The “sweetie” thing was sexist and condescending. But “lipstick on a pig” as a dig at Palin, or even as a negative reference to women and/or femininity in general, I’m not at all buying.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:42:03 +0000

I'm just going to put Melissa's take out there [link] and voice my disappointment that the mainstream media isn't taking McCain/Palin to task for real pigs-in-lipstick lies, like how goddamned important opposition to earmarks (i.e. pork barrel spending, no pun intended) is to their campaign when Palin is, like, the reigning queen of pork barrel spending, with or without lipstick.

By: n5p7q

n5p7q — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:37:12 +0000

RE: Comment #34, where Doug says, “… that’s basically what the McCain/Palin campaign is going for here, right?”

Exactly. McCain’s staff wrote every word of Palin’s convention speech, including the “lipstick” phrase, which was a foreseeable setup in classic GOP style [this is not argued sarcastically].

Obama should have been prepared for this. Voters will forget the “lipstick” SNAFU, but Obama has to start recognizing GOP traps and tactics and be prepared to move around them.

By: AnonymousCoward

AnonymousCoward — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:14:50 +0000

Holly:
I think a “bow-tie” in particular is a bad choice of comparison, since that was Porky Pig’s common attire. The goal of the “lipstick on a pig” analogy is to create an absurd image in the mind of the listener. A bow-tie wearing pig isn’t very effective, because there’s a well-known bow-tie wearing pig in the American culture: Porky Pig, of Looney Toons fame.

Would you consider “dress up a pig” to be similarly gendered? I’ve seen a number of uses of that phrase as well, and I think it’s just as effective.

Or I could be totally wrong. At any rate, the McCain campaign’s claim that Obama was calling Palin a pig is a flat-out lie, regardless of any latent sexism embedded in the turn of phrase.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:03:01 +0000

OK, new rule, everyone — NOBODY on the Democratic side gets to so much as MENTION the word “lipstick” until the election is over, because Sarah Palin used the word lipstick in a speech so now it’s hers, and ANY mention of it by anyone remotely politically opposed to her must automatically be construed as sexist and insulting.

I mean, that’s basically what the McCain/Palin campaign is going for here, right?

By: RMJ

RMJ — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:50:48 +0000

@Lokon
“Crap, I don’t know. This is hard.”

Everything about Palin is very very challenging for me. It’s so murky to defend a candidate whose views you hate. But she needs defense – I feel like all sides of the media, liberal, feminist (not this post specifically), conservative, and apathetic, have said some really fucked-up things about her. Even though I want to see her go down, I want it to be for the right reasons.