Lipstick Fits

Every campaign has a pivotal moment, a sound bite that captures the American conscience and seemingly catapults a candidate to victory. “Read my lips, no new taxes”, “I voted for it before I voted against it”, “There he goes again”. This year’s pivotal sound bite? The improbable “lipstick on a pig”.

This is the type of quote that dummy it up America can grasp, hang onto, claim as its own. The McShame camp made a grievous error when they attempted to use this as a diversion. It is so beautiful that I’m hoping that it was a trap that the Obama camp set and the McShame team gleefully dived right into. Judging from the swift response by Team Obama, it does appear that they were quite prepared to counterpunch as soon as McShame’s lobbyists/campaign team cried foul.

When confronted by the media over accusations that Obama was referring to Palin when he mentioned “lipstick on a pig”, Obama wasted no time correcting the reporters and letting them know that he was talking about McCain and his policies. Although it is a funny aside to consider why everyone assumed he was talking about Palin. But Obama wasn’t done yet. He seized the opportunity to unleash this gem.

“The McCain campaign would much rather have the story be about phony and foolish diversions than about the future. ... This is what they want to spend 2 of the last 55 days talking about. You know who ends up losing at the end of day? It's not the Democratic candidate, it's not the Republican candidate, it's you, the American people. Because then we go another year or another four years or another eight years without addressing the issues that matter to you. Enough. I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics. Enough is enough.”

Team Obama was also prepared with evidence of at least 3 separate occasions in which McShame himself used the same exact “lipstick on a pig” quote when describing his various opponents ideas and policies, with McShame most recently using the quote against Hillary Clinton. Priceless hypocrisy exposed yet again.

In an even more embarrassing discovery, it turns out that Torie Clarke, a McShame and Republican party PR hack, actually published a book entitled “Lipstick on a Pig”. Honestly, has a more inept and embarrassingly incompetent campaign every been run?

Then Obama went on Letterman and “poked” fun at the line. Letterman observed that at some point the Republicans must have actually had to have had a meeting where they concluded that Obama called their VP candidate a pig. Obama, without missing a beat, pointed out that “…had I meant it that way she would actually be the lipstick.” Big laugh line. Keep it coming, McShame.

“Lipstick on a pig” is a line that Obama needs to keep using at every opportunity, day in and day out until it becomes part of the American lexicon. Make sure that the McShame team forever regrets the decision to try to use that line as a diversion from discussing real issues. If the lipstick fits, smear it.

And let's not allow the full message to be lost in the sound bite. Here is what Obama said.
"John McCain says he's about change, too. And so I guess his whole angle is, 'Watch out, George Bush. Except for economic policy, health-care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics, we're going to really shake things up in Washington. That's not change. That's just calling some -- the same thing something different. But you know, you can't, you can put, uh, lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig."