I'm Officially Shutting Down This 'Lipstick On A Pig' Discussion

What a trying day. What an insufferable news cycle. This is why Mission of Burma wrote the song "That's When I Reach For My Revolver." And this is why I am thankful that I have the good sense not to own one.

Chris Matthews teased the top of Hardball by saying, "By now, you may have heard of this 'lipstick on a pig' controversy." And, naturally, hot blood shot to both my temples. "Well YES, Chris. 'By now' I have, in fact, seen at least sixty seconds of your network's dayside coverage." But I restrained myself, because I know that occasionally Tweety will rise to the occasion, and shut some nonsense down, declaratively. One would imagine, that with the network pivoting to tonight's extra-Special Comment about...oh, what was it again? Wasn't it something that people think of as important? OH YES 9-11! Like I said...ONE WOULD IMAGINE that Matthews might be shrewd enough to not send his viewers into the media twaddle version of the Hadron Supercollider, where "lipstick on a pig" is shot at 9-11, leading to a black hole that would suck everything in the world that is not already sucking -- just as hard as it can -- into the sweet release of nonexistence.

But, no. Matthews proceeded to explain that tonight, "We'll talk to some Democratic and Republican strategists about it."

And I'm like: "TWEETY, PLEASE. Nobody needs to hear any more nonsense from strategists. This is a matter of linguistics and colloquial expressions. The phrase "lipstick on a pig" is commonplace, well understood, not freighted with sexist connotation, and it's not some sort of inside-the-beltway neologism."

Is it a swipe at Sarah Palin? Can anyone say definitively that it is? Of course not! And, really, how could they? When Palin is not gamely reciting her greatest hits on the stump, the McCain camp has got her locked up in Rapunzel's Tower -- updo in full effect -- away from anyone who would dare pose a question in her direction. For all anyone knows, Palin is a pig in lipstick, a silk purse sewn from a sow's ear, a turd in need of polish, OR NONE OF THOSE THINGS, but, heck -- I'm willing to reserve judgment until such time as she's mustered up the courage and the wherewithal to actually face the public she professes to serve and prove otherwise.

But the larger concern should not be with Palin, who, to me anyway, comes across as a perfectly capable brawler, deft with zingers of her own. Here's the major concern: The whole wide world went to bed last night, safe in the thought that tomorrow, we would all wake up and be able to say "lipstick on a pig" the same way we have done every bloody day of our lives. And I'll be good and goddamned if I'm going to let strategists, pundits, and news anchors take that away. NO NO. It is time for someone to say that we are not this stupid, that we are not this pliable, that we are not going to be led by the nose, and that, going forward, every single person on the television and in print who has the nerve to suggest that the use of the phrase "lipstick on a pig" is a deep matter that faux-experts need to dissect and decipher needs to be immediately trepanned with a railroad spike and thrown into a ditch.

I'm officially reclaiming "lipstick on a pig" for humanity. Further discussion is a non-starter. I warn you: THAT DOG WON'T HUNT. NOT EVEN AERIALLY.

UPDATE: Many have pointed out that Matthews made gamely efforts to shut this nonsense down as the show went on. Saints be praised.

Comments

[DebbieinPhx]

I thought Keith Olberman summed this tactic up pretty well this evening. He said:
“ the reason McCain is doing this is that he must divert America’s attention away from the fact that he and his party are responsible and complicit for the horrendous failings of the last 8 years and that now his running mate is an even bigger ruse which he is trying to pull over on the American people. A facile unqualified unknown who has so many scandals, mistruths, blunders, and gaffes coming from her that the media can’t but help but be drawn into covering.

She is like covering and unmanned explosion at a fireworks factory!”

[grata2ude]

the MSM are puppets to Rove and they are not helpless. The coverage on this lipstick comment was carried on by the MSM.

Today for example, MSNBC when covering Obama in Virginia, covered his sppech where he called John McCain out for calling him sexist. Obama said enough. Then was giving a very interesting speech on his ideas and plans for improving education. The pundits cut off coverage of his speech to go into another big discussion on whether his response to the McCain charge was strong enough.

My God, does the media not want to even discuss issues? They said not one word about his education plan, but spent another half hour on the lipstick comment. Its ridiculous

[bakingmom]

totally agree. If the government is by the people and for the people, thank goodness for the internet to be by us and for us, right? I think the media bias is horrendous. There are multiple stories, every single day, that they are by-passisng in lieu of the "sexier" attention-grabbers b/c that is what we, the electorate, have been conditioned to want and to expect.

[moodpost]

"You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig" is a TRUE statement.

I can't think of anything else that should be said about it. I like the expression, especially as it pertains to the failed policies of the last eight years and the proposed direction that the Republicans have put into their platform for the future.

The democrats should take a lesson from the republicans on this one. Instead of apologizing for the remark, we should make it a major slogan. It is TRUE. Why apologize.

We should drive this point home, not censor it.

[Daniboy]

If the Obama campaign sent 40 lawyers and detectives to Alaska to find dirt on Sara-her days are numbered.Old Chicago politicians know how to run a campaign.

[suzannenyc]

".... the media twaddle version of the Hadron Supercollider, where "lipstick on a pig" is shot at 9-11, leading to a black hole that would suck everything in the world that is not already sucking -- just as hard as it can -- into the sweet release of nonexistence."
Well, that made my day! Thanks! Can't wait to find out what nonsense is being cooked up for tomorrow's news cycle. Bread and Circuses. That's what we've got now. It didn't do much for the Roman Empire and I expect it's not doing much for us.

[Daniboy]

Maybe Barrack wasn't comparing sara to a pig-but he sure showed poor judgement in bringing lipstick up-is it too late for us to get Hillary! Now he's backing off raising taxes on the richest people too. I'm getting buyer's remorse.

[kepasadena]

Politics is all about words.
When you think about Sarah Palin's convention speech, one word comes to
mind: Lipstick.
It was a beautiful political stunt. When she uttered that little joke about
pit bulls, Republican's took ownership of the word Lipstick. And along with
it, they won over a ton of the female vote.
Today, Barack Obama reclaimed ownership. You've seen the clip of Obama using
the "pig with lipstick" analogy in reference to McCain's repackaged
policies.. You've seen the blowback from the republicans saying it was a
direct insult to Palin. You've seen the response from the Democrats denying
any such thing.
But the bottom line is this: Sarah Palin will never utter the word
"lipstick" again and the RNC will never replay the famous segment from the
convention speech again.
Obama reclaimed the word Lipstick for its rightful owner, the Democratic
Party. He removed a weapon of mass distraction from the republican arsenal.
This guy is good.

[UpstateNY]

Of course, Obama knew what he was saying and he was alluding to Palin's phrase about 'lipstick on a bulldog'. It was supposed to be clever and it didn't mean he thought she was a pig in and same way she didn't mean that she was literally a bulldog.

Everyone knows what everyone meant - the Republicans just want to stir things up and take another day in a very tight election cycle away from discussing any issues. And I guess they have succeeded.

I wonder what it will be about tomorrow? I know this is much more fun than discussing the boring issues that will actually affect our lives, but if the media could just ignore the Republican machine and focus on the issues, I think we would ALL be better off.

[Finchy13]

Don't Be Fooled......A Pittbull with Lipstick is Still A Pittbull!!

Find the Palin Pittbull - http://www.cafepress.com/geofftoons/5956319

All this talk of lipstick - on either side - is nonsense! What happened to ISSUES? OH? There are ISSUES??? Gee, I didn't notice.....because of all the crap that has been thrown around - ISSUES haven't come up!

Hopefully, the American voter will demand a standard of excellence in who they elect to the Presidency and Vice Presidency - hopefully, the same herd who follows mediocrity in the White House won't continue to be so stupid! The last eight years have only illustrated the true meaning of mediocrity - because mediocrity has definitly risen to the top. Don't be fooled and elect more mediocrity - demand excellence, demand truth, demand the best for our country!

[riverhippie]

I'll tell you what happened to the issues. McCain picked Sarah Palin and you liberals are so obsessed with her you can talk about nothing else. The MSM picked up on your obsession and are running everything they can on her because they know you can't resist watching.

[FreelanceWriter]

There's bias in the media but ONE thing trumps all -- ratings and the money they bring in. And it's all based on what people (rightly or wrongly) keep choosing to watch. So why air an Obama education speech (zzzz! snore!) when you can talk about Palin where people love to argue and go at it? (Ka-Ching!)

[T Pol]

"We need to let Obama be the good cop, and we need someone who has nothing to lose -- NOTHING -- to lambast these phony, self-righteous, shameless thugs."

I'll be happy to be that someone with nothing to lose.

If Sarah Palin thinks comparing women to animals is sexist, then perhaps she should not have compared hockey moms to dogs.

Methinks she doth protest too much.

[bakingmom]

OOOOOOHHHHHHH! LOOOOOOOOOVE this!!!! Can I lift this to all hockey moms/pitbulls in Minnesota (where I live?). We ALLLLLL agree that Pale-in is no hockey mom and we are embarrassed that she even chooses to identify with that demographic . . .

[riverhippie]

I haven't hear Sarah Palin complain about this one bit.

[Tinsdale]

I did hear that pigs are actually smarter than pit bulls, so that probably makes Sarah and the McCain camp feel better.

[Ron1951]

If the main stream media--particularly the big TV networks would just ignore the BS ads and concentrate on the facts about policy, then there would be no point in the campaigns spending time and money on these BS attacks. Face it, the networks are not powerless. They make the decisions about what to cover.

[EZKY]

I don't know -- I've been reading a few other things and I'm actually thinking it was great free publicity for Obama's message.

[Obama08Supporter]

Let this die! It is a trick and we do not need to play anymore!

Let McCain do what they do and we need to stay focused on how I am going to keep my home, care, pay bills,etc.

I am getting so sick of the games, McCain makes this elections feel like a joke, he makes me feel like I am a joke to him. He is never serious about Americans, he always has to make jokes and start fires to hide his inexperience to run this country and we let me.

[Grannysue]

Republicans can't comment on our economy because it's in the toilet, can't comment on housing market, it's in the toilet, can't comment on the two screwed up messes in the middle east they call WAR, they are in the toilet, can't comment on the lobbyist, their in the toilet with them, can't comment on our education system, it's in the toilet, healthcare, latrine, gas prices, comode, global warming, doesn't exist and it's in the toilet. So what can they talk about??? I know Sarah's being picked on and called a pig, that's why the Republicans are right where they belong, IN THE TOILET! Oh, and Sarah, the pig wears that color far better then you dear!

[Heavenhelpusall]

Watch this, John McCain uses LIPSTICK ON A PIG against HILARY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR8IhMMhe8w&eurl=http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/10/pigs/

Transcript

AUDIENCE: I noticed in your speech you avoided any comparison of your plan to HILARY CLINTON's plan. I'm curious, have you or your staff put a price tag on what you see coming out of her campaign on HILARY Care?

JOHN McCAIN: No, but there's many things that concern me about it. It's vaguely, not vaguely but eerily reminiscent of what they tried back in 1993. I THINK THEY PUT SOME LIPSTICK ON A PIG, BUT I'TS STILL A PIG.

[howardley]

Whoever be elected in next November, change will not happen. I wish everybody take a time and read this short article:
http://democracyandsocialism.com/Articles/TheUSelectionsandchange.html