Obama Lipstick Comment Causes Controversy

September 10. 2008

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama referred to his Republican rivals in terms that made some angry. Obama stated at a rally, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” Ouch!

Barack Obama

Many viewed that as a jab against John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, who previously referred to herself as a hockey mom, who is a pitbull with lipstick. Some allege “pitbull” became “pig” in Obama’s statement.

Sarah Palin and John McCain

Obama has denied the charge, stating he was not referring to Palin. Maybe it was Alec Baldwin that called her a, “Rude, thoughtless little pig.” Just kidding.

Obama Puts Different Twist on Lipstick

What’s the difference between a more hopeful kind of politics and old-fashioned attacks? Lipstick.

Barack Obama says the John McCain-Sarah Palin policies don’t represent change, they’re “just calling the same thing something different.”

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” Obama said during a town-hall style event here Tuesday night.

The comment played on Republican vice presidential candidate Palin’s joke during the Republican National Convention that the only difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom was lipstick.

UPDATE: The McCain campaign quickly struck back convening a conference call with reporters and former Mass. Gov. Jane Swift to paint the common expression as a sexist jab at Palin. “As far as I know there is only one candidate in this contest who wears lipstick,” Swift said.

The reaction set off a frenzied dive into the opposition research vault. Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton sent reporters a Chicago Tribune article published in 2007 during the Democratic primaries that cites McCain criticizing Hillary Clinton’s health care plan. “I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” McCain is quoted as saying about Clinton’s proposal.

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