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So maybe Jane Swift isn't that familar with folksy sayings

By adamg - Wed, 09/10/2008 - 7:50am.

Barack Obama says John McCain's call for change is like "putting lipstick on a pig" and the McCain camp wheels out our very own Jane Swift to get all huffy. As Todd Gilman of the Dallas Morning News writes:

... Former Gov. Jane Swift of Massachusetts -- where, perhaps, they don't have colorful expressions about pigs -- denounced the comment as "disgraceful" and maintained that since Palin is the only national candidate who wears lipstick, it was clearly directed at her. ... Bloggers have dusted off instances of McCain putting "lipstick on a pig" in reference to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. No apparent outcry from Gov. Swift at the time. ...

Via Ryan.

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The Obama Clip in Question

By SwirlyGrrl | Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:47am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPd4yk0x-eg

He is very clearly talking about McSame's spin on the same Karl Rove policies that made the Bush presidency famous.

Huckabee on Hannity:

"When you listen to it in full, it is clear he wasn't talking about Palin...it's an old expression."

Personally

By Kaz | Wed, 09/10/2008 - 10:54am

I don't care if he *did* mean it. So he called her a pig...big whoop. The McCain campaign is calling him a child-corrupting pervert. It was legislation to keep kids safe from child molesters and they've distorted it to sound like he wants to teach kindergartners "sex ed before they can read". Assinine.

So, McCain, Swift, and Palin can go blow it out their ass about lipstick and barn animals...that's where everything else you hear from the Republicans is coming from anyways these days.

spin

By Anonymous | Wed, 09/10/2008 - 11:24am

Jane Swift (R-MA) is the McCain Truth Squad spokeswomen trying to rile up the party faithful against the presumptuous [uppity] community organizer.... He said a girl was a pig with lipstick. What kind of man is he? The McCain campaign must think voters are idiots if they think Democrats, Independents and Republicans are going to buy into their spin. The Republicans will do ANYTHING to turn this campaign into a pissing contest.

As long as we're talking about Sarah Palin Caribou Barbie,

we're not talking about the national issues facing the country and debating solutions on the merit - jobs, wages, health, education, militarism, Iraq, etc

What are McCain's solutions? Same tax policy, same war policy, same as George Bush.

calculus

By Anonymous | Fri, 09/12/2008 - 11:32pm

I'm sure Swiftie is well

By Dave | Wed, 09/10/2008 - 1:34pm

I'm sure Swiftie is well aware that it's a folksy saying.
It's a folksy saying that's clearly a reference to Palin if you listen to the entire clip.

I'm also quite sure that most of the outrage over this is mock outrage, and if not, people really need to get a life.

"Let's call a 'spade' a 'spade'" is a folksy saying, and you're not going to be hearing that from McCain and Palin.
They're already being accused by donk dingbats of using "racial codewords" for bringing up "community organizer".

Nah

By Kaz | Wed, 09/10/2008 - 2:04pm

Why say "spade" when you can say "child corrupter" instead?

When you completely distort reality in order to sling mud, you're only feigning indignity to complain about the other guy when he verbally outmaneuvers you. You have to start with some dignity in order to have it maligned.

manafactured insult by McCain campaign

By Anonymous | Wed, 09/10/2008 - 6:32pm

Dave, I don't see it. Your assertion that Obama was calling Palin a pig is laughable. Show us the part where it's so obvious Obama was calling Palin a pig.

Obama is referencing McCain's policies and comparing them to George Bush's policies. "Calling it something new is putting lipstick on a pig."

Here's the transcript from the YouTube Swrrly post above.

"Let's just list this for a second
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 really going to shake things up in Washington
that's not change
that''s just calling the same thing something different
but you know you cant
you can put lipstick on a pig, its still a pig"

The McCain campaign also said Obama sent 30 campaign operatives to Alaska to dig up shit on Palin. Not true.

This whole episode is faux. Faux outrage by McCain, faux issue. Faux, fuax, faux. I guess this is what you talk about when you have nothing but the same policies as George Bush.

Anyway, please post a link to a video that reveals Obama as taking a shot at Palin and if it does reveal that as the truth, then I'm with you. Otherwise, you are being duped. How does it feel being played by the party you support?

Nice selective quoting,

By Dave | Wed, 09/10/2008 - 8:03pm

Nice selective quoting, "Anonymous", if that is indeed your name.

You left out his very next line, right after he paused to let the Obamabots' laughter to subside a bit: "You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink."

Clearly the "old" was a reference to McCain, and the "lipstick" reference was too much a coincidence to Palin's most famous soundbyte from her speech a week or so ago. To deny it is laughable.

Jimmy Severino had a good question tonight: "Is it OK for a Muslim to tell pig jokes"?

Fresh fish doesn't stink.

By pierce | Wed, 09/10/2008 - 8:16pm

Fresh fish doesn't stink. Old fish does.

I've never heard of Jimmy Severino. I have, on the other hand, heard that Obama is not Muslim. Is it just a bad joke, or is Severino ignorant? I'm guessing a bit of both?

Who said Obama was Muslim?

By Dave | Wed, 09/10/2008 - 8:32pm

Who said Obama was Muslim?

You're being duped by the McCain campaign

By Anonymous | Wed, 09/10/2008 - 9:47pm

I didn't leave out the line: "You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink." That line is not on the video Swrrly posted which was my source.

Nevertheless even if you put that line in context, I defy you to demonstrate it is a reference to either McCain or Palin.


"Let's just list this for a second
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 really going to shake things up in Washington
that's not change
that''s just calling the same thing something different
but you know you cant
you can put lipstick on a pig, its still a pig
You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink."

This speech is about McCain's policies - economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove style politics - the policies are the pig and the lipstick is calling the policies maverick "reform".

The policies are the stinky fish and the newspaper won't hide the stink, the stick of four more years of these crappy policies.

And you say:

Clearly the "old" was a reference to McCain, and the "lipstick" reference was too much a coincidence to Palin's most famous soundbyte from her speech a week or so ago. To deny it is laughable.

Clearly? Really?

I would love it if Obama would go after McCain for being the oldest presidential candidate in the history of the United States, with four surgeries for malignant skin cancer but he won't, it's not his style.

I would love it if Obama would go after Palin for being an earmark queen, running for mayor on on an anti-abortion plank, running for gov. as pro bridge to nowhere, and running for vp as against the bridge to nowhere, but he won't.

I bet you watch fox news an nothing else. The rest of the media has the story. It seems you are the only one missing out

HALPERIN: Stop the madness. I mean, this is, I think -- with all due respect to the program's focus on this and to what David just said -- I think this is the press just absolutely playing into the McCain campaign's crocodile tears. I wouldn't --

COOPER: Crocodile tears?

HALPERIN: Yeah. They don't think this is sexist.

COOPER: They know exactly what it is.

HALPERIN: They know exactly what he was saying. It's an expression. And this is a victory for the McCain campaign, in the sense that, every day, they can make this a pig fight in the mud. It's good for them for them because it's reducing Barack Obama's message even more.

But I think this is a low point in the day in his -- and one of the low days of our collective coverage of this campaign. To make even -- to spend even a minute --

Chuck Todd, MSNBC: Calls it the shiny metal object it is.

Ari Melber, Washington Indy: Contextualizes the bogus claim in the false cry of sexism, though doesn't contextualize the attempt to distract the press.

Kosher:

Marc Ambinder, Atlantic: A solid dismissal of the claim that Obama called Palin a pig.

Jake Tapper, ABC: Jake's coverage of this has evolved over time--his first, pre-Swift impression was to connect Obama's comment and Palin. But as time went on--and as he laid out Swift's ridiculous performance in great detail, he ultimately judged it to be "full of half-truths and statements that weren't true at all."

Mike Huckabee, Fox: Hannity attempts to co-opt him, Huckabee refuses.

First Read, MSNBC: Hidden within a description of both sides' claims the piece includes the judgment, "it's pretty clear that the "lipstick" remark wasn't directed to Palin."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp2BbDfS1Dc&feature=user

The Obamabots are getting

By Dave | Wed, 09/10/2008 - 11:34pm

The Obamabots are getting desperate because things aren't as Hopey-Changey as they were a week and a half ago.

As for your crack about me watching Fox, I haven't seen it for a few days, but this seems pertinent.

a crack you seem to agree with

By Anonymous | Thu, 09/11/2008 - 12:22am

So you'd agree that fox news is propaganda and not much more?

(No subject)

By Anonymous | Thu, 09/11/2008 - 12:36am

I love you

By Anonymous | Fri, 09/12/2008 - 11:08am

The great of a man is measured by the adoration he receives from others.

The McCain-Palin campaign

By Anonymous | Fri, 09/12/2008 - 1:07pm

The McCain-Palin campaign has released a new TV ad that distorts quotes from the Obama campaign. It takes words out of context to make it sound as though the Democratic ticket is belittling Palin:

* The ad says "they said she was doing 'what she was told.' " But the Obama adviser who's being quoted didn't accuse Palin of meekly following orders. What he actually said is that she made a false claim about Obama's legislative record and added, "maybe that's what she was told."

* It says "they lashed out at Sarah Palin; dismissed her as 'good looking,' " But "they" didn't lash out at all. Obama – who is the one pictured – didn't say anything like that. The only one the McCain campaign quotes is Obama's running mate, Biden, and he actually offered the remark as a compliment. Biden said the "obvious" difference between Palin and himself is "she's good looking."

* The ad says Obama was "disrespectful" when he accused Palin of "lying" about her record. But the truth is Palin's claim to have "said no" to the "bridge to nowhere" is indeed a dubious one, as we and many have pointed out.
link

A new Obama-Biden ad

By Anonymous | Fri, 09/12/2008 - 1:08pm

A new Obama-Biden ad includes misleading claims about McCain and education spending:

* It says McCain "voted to cut education funding" and lists five votes. But one was a vote for increased education funding, although for fewer dollars than what Democrats may have wanted. And three others were votes against additional funding, not votes for funding cuts.

* The ad says that "McCain's economic plan gives $200 billion more to special interests while taking money away from public schools." Not exactly. McCain has proposed a one-year freeze on discretionary spending in general. A freeze would mean that funds would not keep pace with inflation and population growth, but no dollars would be "taken away." The $200 billion for "special interests" refers to the cost of McCain's proposal to reduce the tax rate for all business corporations, not just a few "special" ones.

* The ad says McCain proposed abolishing the Department of Education. He did once say in an interview that he "would certainly favor" abolishing both the departments of Education and Energy, but he hasn't pushed for either.
link

the McPalin campaign will lie about anything

By Anonymous | Sat, 09/13/2008 - 7:01pm

It's now apparent that the McPalin campaign will lie about anything: earmarks, foreign travel, crowd size, even who paid for Meghan's Prius.

Is it possible that McCain's bravado about how well Iraq is going is all a lie, too? According to Bob Woodward, that may well be the case.

Woodward's latest book about the Iraq war, "The War Within," portrays McCain as offering a rosy assessment to the public about the surge's progress while privately telling U.S. officials he thought the country was on the brink of losing the war.

The book describes McCain's press conference after visiting the Shorja market in Baghdad in early April of 2007. After touring the market -- protected by more than 100 soldiers -- McCain said, "Things are getting better in Iraq, and I am pleased with the progress that has been made."
link

While Ms. Palin took office

By Anonymous | Sun, 09/14/2008 - 7:32pm

While Ms. Palin took office promising a more open government, her administration has battled to keep information secret. Her inner circle discussed the benefit of using private e-mail addresses. An assistant told her it appeared that such e-mail messages sent to a private address on a “personal device” like a BlackBerry “would be confidential and not subject to subpoena.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html

Libertarian's make fun of

By Anonymous | Mon, 09/15/2008 - 9:33pm

Libertarian's make fun of the Democratic and Republican parody's (sic) using animation. video 3mins.

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