Too clever by half
Nedra Pickler of the AP was not amused by recent jokes about stinking fish and lipsticked pigs from the Democratic candidate for President of the United States:
“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to Palin’s joke. “It’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still going to stink after eight years.”
McCain’s campaign immediately organized a telephone conference call in response and called on Obama to apologize for calling Palin a pig. Obama’s campaign said he wasn’t referring to Palin; he had been talking about McCain immediately before the lipstick comment.
Obama followed up by saying Palin is an interesting story, drawing boos at the mention of her name that he tried to cut off.
“Look, she’s new, she hasn’t been on the scene, she’s got five kids. And my hat goes off to anybody whose looking after five. I’ve got two and they tire Michelle and me out,” he said.
Senator Obama today attacked the press for creating this “made-up controversy,” though it seems obvious from the campaign’s talking points of the day, as well as from crowd reaction, that the Illinois Democrat knew exactly what he was doing. (Consider this: it is an even worse reflection on him if he didn’t know what he was saying.)
Several months ago, Senator Obama famously flipped Hillary the bird and looked like a punk to many outside his adoring flock. Now he is apparently engaging in more teenage tomfoolery. It is way too early to make any definitive judgments, but remarks like that, and apparently snide digs about how five kids would be such a burden for a Vice President, make the candidate look today as if he’s lost his bearings for the moment. We can’t help but wonder what his internal polling is telling him.
September 11th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Not qualified, and intent on proving it.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
BO committed a major political gaffe, but not because of what he said or meant to say. He committed a gaffe because of what his audience HEARD. It is indisputable that his audience heard an insult to his political opponent, and it’s unquestionable most listeners since have heard a slur of Sarah Palin.
Don’t blame me for this upside-down criteria. This is the rule established after Trent Lott’s infamous birthday party - offense is in the mind of the listener, whatever the speaker may have intended. Otherwise ‘macaca’ would still be a random noise.
The point everyone commentator seems to be missing is it’s irrelevant what BO intended by his remark. The Culture of Victimhood rules that its not the action that determines offense - it’s your ‘feelings’ about it. The Cult of the Left is probably regretting convincing the American public that’s a reasonable requirement.
BO is currently undergoing the three stages of ‘gaffe management’ - denial, confrontation, and,ultimately, apology - and I’m watching with fascination.