Posted by
beltway girl on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 2:22:49 AM
Barack Obama has officially been on the campaign trail for nearly two years now. And he has been a phenomenon, of sorts. His meteoric rise to political stardom can be likened to a comet, with a long, bright tail of laudatory praise peppered into stories that were supposed to have been written by objective journalists.
It's been quite a ride.
It ends today.
"But you know... you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. You know, you can... wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it's still going to stink."
Now, Geraldine Ferrarro, when she was on a recent edition of a cable news program, advised Joe Biden, in preparation for his debate with her, to "watch her [Palin's] tape." Whatever tape she was referring to, a prior debate, the speech from the convention-- well, it's unclear.
But we can be reasonably sure that whatever she is referring to, politicians watch each other.
Obama watched Sarah Palin's convention speech. He knows about that pit bull with the lipstick. His campaign didn't turn off the television that night to go bowling.
This "gaffe" may not have been a total, or even partial, accident. Had Obama done this on purpose, exactly who would be able to prove it?
No one. No, those who "read too much" into these words would surely see themselves branded as lunatics, paranoid personalities, hate-mongerers, and race-baiters by news organizations yet to be named, and they will be, because just as surely as they rode to the rescue of Barack Obama on the heels of the vitriolic Jeremiah Wright, they will certainly come riding again now.
It might not work this time. Obama's campaign "got it." And Ben Smith's Blog has the goods. The Obama campaign's members had been talking just that day about Sarah Palin and her lipstick.
"Though on a day when Obama's surrogates were just joking that Palin's record can't be concealed with lipstick, it was hard for those following the campaign not to hear the echo."
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Obama_Lipstick_on_a_pig.html
Today online, there were tee shirts for sale. They had a little lipstick kiss next to the words, "Pit Bull."
So make no excuses, Obama's campaign had gotten the message.
Some now are musing whether "the old fish in a piece of paper" isn't also a repulsive form of ageism directed at John McCain.
Did Barack Obama do this on purpose?
Obama's campaign is in trouble. Sarah Palin has turned this into a whole new ball game. Pundits wonder in their columns if he didn't throw away his best, and perhaps only, chance at the White House by passing over Hillary Clinton for the vice presidential spot. And, most importantly, the polls have finally broken for McCain.
All of these factors, when taken together, are very bad news for Senator Barack Obama. And he came out tonight, and his face, of late flashing with previously unfamiliar anger, may have flashed again. But what we know is the words came out of his mouth.
Barack Obama already had to travel to San Francisco to tell us what he really thinks of Pennsylvanians.
Has he now had to travel to Lebanon, Virginia, a state much imbued with our nation's rich history, to tell us what he really thinks about women?
Or maybe just conservative women?
"Sweetie" Barack Obama?
Passed-over-Hillary Barack Obama?
"My own white grandmother" Barack Obama?
On a day when Joe Biden told us Sarah Palin doesn't really, you know, care for her own son, born with Down syndrome, enough because she dares to disagree with his "view" on stem cell research.
And Senator Biden, has it occurred to you that if Palin adopted your "worldview," the face you show your nation, the one that says abortion is a choice, that child might not exist at all?
All on the same day.
It may have been more than a gaffe by Senator Obama today.
Eight thousand troops will come home from Iraq one day soon.
Joe Biden and Barack Obama might also go home in November as a result of the remarks they made today. Let's hope they do.