When I look at this latest Gaffe that’s the question I’m left with.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPd4yk0x-eg
The important line to note in the video is “You know, you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig.”
Now, yes, that is a common saying in politics and, yes, even McCain has used it before (though he was calling a piece of legislation a pig and not people). So to someone who doesn’t follow politics in any way shape or form it might not seem like a big deal at all. But for everyone else in the world its obvious that this is intended to be an attack on Sarah Palin.
And its obvious because the most famous line Sarah Palin has ever uttered in her public life came just a week ago when she said “What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick”.
But despite how obvious it is to anyone with half a brain and access to campaign coverage, Obama and his campaign insists on asserting that the pig comments had absolutely nothing to do with Sarah Palin. You know, he just happened to use that lipstick line about pigs the week after Palin made her own famous lipstick reference and now he is shocked and appalled that anybody could make the connection.
Now, honestly, if you take the campaign’s explanation at face value than what else can you conclude than the fact that Obama is just dumb. Seriously. I mean how can you not make the connection between the two lines? Even if you didn’t intend for the connection to be made how can you not see that it would be made?
(I mean come on… even his supporters in the audience made the connection. Are they smarter than he is?)
To me, whats far more likely than the Obama camps explination is that Obama planned on making the pig remark as a twist on Palin’s words, which happens all the time in politics (you know those clever politicians), and I’m guessing he didn’t completely realize that the twist ends up referring to Sarah Palin (and George Bush) as a pig. And I’m also guessing they probably figured even if it was borderline offensive that it would get a lot of attention since it was at a small rally in front of supporters.
And then when it did blow up in their faces Obama and his campaign decided to play the “I’m an idiot and completely oblivious to practically everything” card. A card that the Obama camp has played over and over again with great success.
Think back to the situations around Reverend Wright, Rashid Khalidi, or William Ayres. It seems, at least to me, that Obama always seems to have a piggate/lipstickgate/whatevergate you wanna call it kind of response. In other words he always seems to claim that he was completely unaware of what he or his friends and associates were doing or saying. You know, the old “I wasn’t there when my pastor of 20 years was saying these insane things” or the classic “my friends who either are terrorists or support terrorists are actually “mainstream” and “respected” professors”.
(But, inevitably, the dumbest people involved with the playing of the idiot card are the ones who immediately fold after its played… that would be the media of course)
So, whether you go with my best guess of what happened or if you go with what the Obama campaign says happened their are really only two conclusions to draw from this. And those conclusions are, either Obama really didn’t make the connection before he said the pig line and is thus and absolute idiot or he knew exactly what he was doing and is just pretending to be dumb in order to escape the backlash like he has done time and time again throughout this election cycle.
