Not easy being green

I love this song by LCD Soundsystem.

I love the video even more. Wow!

Oink!

I first saw Barack Obama's infamous (now) "lipstick on a pig" quote yesterday morning at the deli as a headline on the auspicious pages of that bastion of journalistic integrity, The NY Post. And I have to admit, I laughed a little bit at it. I've been kinda waiting for Obama to get mad about something, anything that is going on with the Republicans campaign of deflection. And I thought this was it.

Then I saw the video that it came from and my thoughts turned to "OK...he is just using a common phrase to outline a serious issue." That he was sick of the McCain campaign claiming they are the real agents of change. Smart people are gonna see that, right?

Wrong.

It did get a good laugh at wherever he was when he made those comments, that is true. Palin's pitbull/hockey mom comparison is still ringing pretty loudly in ears of the American public. So it was probably intentional on the part of the Obama campaign. Use her soundbite to initiate his own.

Was he calling Palin a pig? Um, no he wasn't. He may have turned around her words to point out the deficiencies in the Republicans change message, but I think even John McCain would agree that he wasn't actually calling Palin a pig. That, of course, isn't stopping the Republicans from crying "sexism". Rovian politics, my friends. When you can't defend, attack. Unreasonably, if necessary.

Listen, John McCain has used that same exact phrase just in the past year a few times. On one occasion he used it when talking about Hillary Clinton's health care platform. The crowd he was addressing laughed just as hard as Obama's crowd from the other day. Was McCain being sexist then? Hardly. Smart people know that, and Republicans would have been offended if Democrats had made that accusation. Or campaigned on it.

And McCain isn't the only major Republican or Democrat how uses this phrase in common usage. A bunch of them do, including current VP Dick Cheney. It is especially common on the campaign trail. As a way of attacking spin.

I'd rather that the Republicans address what Obama actually said and maybe try to convince me that he is wrong about their campaign of change. Show me that they really are for change. Don't get mired in rhetoric and deflection. That would be hoping for a lot, I guess.

Oh, and my favorite bit of irony about the entire silly fucking thing? John McCain's former Press Secretary published a book a few years ago. Guess what the name of that book was...go ahead, guess.



And I'm spent.