An Intentional Distraction by Any Other Name...

This silliness about Obama using the phrase "put lipstick on a pig" is what I was talking about a couple of weeks ago when I said I wanted a campaign without intentional lies! The phrase "You can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig" has been around for 100 years (It's sort of a down homey way of saying Shakespeare's line "That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"). There's only two explanations for the uproar: 1) Either the people who are complaining are too stupid to know the expression has been around forever (and has been used by BOTH candidates long before any of us had heard any comments about bulldogs and lipsticks), or 2) They know the phrase is a common one and are just trying to cause controversy. Because I don't want to call anyone stupid, I'll assume the latter.

And I'm telling you this: If the McCain campaign thought their stupid ad was going to convince me to vote for them, they're sadly mistaken. In fact, it's had the opposite effect. I'm so sick of this stupid pettiness that I'll vote for Obama to spite them. I hope the rest of the undecided and open-minded feel the same way.

Here's what Obama should come back with: "Apparently we're not allowed to use common phrases anymore if our rivals use a word from that phrase in their speeches. So I can't say 'lipstick' in ANY phrase, huh? I can't say 'You can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig' when what I really mean is 'You can try to make something look different but that doesn't make it different'?

"That's fine with me. I'll stop saying that...as soon as my opponent stops using the word 'change' and stops saying 'A Change is Coming' when what he really mean is 'Four more years of the same thing.'"

And if--as it would appear--Barack Obama can no longer use the word "lipstick" and/or any phrase that contains "lipstick," I guess he should also avoid the following well-known phrases:

1. A bridge over Troubled Waters
2. Shining nowhere but in the dark
3. "H" - "E" double hockey sticks.
4. Mom knows best.
5. Quick, get in the car. That pit bull looks like it's going to attack! (Okay, so maybe that one isn't a famous phrase. Still, if there's ever a time when Barack Obama DOES need to use that phrase, I hope this incident doesn't make him hesitate to say it!)

My respect for the Republican nominee and his staff was cut in half with this petty exchange. I was willing to overlook the comparisons between Obama and Britney Spears, but this has reached a new low. It's really sad, and it leads me to believe that the Republicans--as the Democrats have asserted for months--really DON'T have anything substantive to say about the issues. They know they can't win based on anything real, so they're making up stuff now.

I may need to rethink my party affiliation.