September 11, 2008

Pigs Will Fly

Hatched by Dafydd

Tom Bevan at Real Clear Politics nails the Obama pig comment to the wall today. Here is his killer point:

Imagine for a moment if John McCain had used a similar shopworn phrase in reference to Barack Obama's policies. Suppose he said, "Obama says he's going to cut your taxes but he's really going to raise them. My friends, it's time for some straight talk about taxes, it's time to call a spade a spade."

Do you think for a second the Joe Kleins, Andrew Sullivans, and Josh Marshalls of the world wouldn't scream from the rooftops that McCain had used a racial slur against Obama? Of course they would -- and they'd scoff at the notion that McCain was somehow unaware of how that phrase would be interpreted. Anyone who tried to argue that McCain was simply using a well known phrase that predated the current presidential race would be tagged as an apologist for racism. Even if McCain hadn't meant it that way, it wouldn't matter.

However... Five bucks says that within a couple-three days, that "call a spade a spade" line will be circulating on lefty blogs as something McCain actually said, rather than as Tom Bevan's analogy!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, September 11, 2008, at the time of 2:41 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: PC14

The first AP dispatch on Tuesday night by Nadra Pickler contained the following paragraph:

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to Palin's joke. "It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years."

The subsequent, EXPABNDED article by Ms Pickler, which followed on Wednesday morning, did not contain that paragraph nor any reference to the audience reation.

It's clear that Ms. Pickler sanitized the original story after realizing that Obama and his peeps were now spinning denial.

The above hissed in response by: PC14 [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 11, 2008 3:29 PM

The following hissed in response by: eliXelx

I'm quoting here, but some blogger said that

1)Obama had gone over to the dark side...
2)When he sings his voice is down low...
3)His outlook on life is not half full or half empty; just half and half...
4)Threatening America with civil war if he was not elected was just blackmail talk...
5)He now takes his coffee without cream rather than black...

The above hissed in response by: eliXelx [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 11, 2008 5:11 PM

The following hissed in response by: eliXelx

I'm quoting here, but some blogger said that

1)Obama had gone over to the dark side...
2)When he sings he goes down low...
3)His outlook on life is not half full or half empty; just half and half...
4)Threatening America with civil war if he was not elected was just blackmail talk...
5)He now takes his coffee without cream rather than black...

The above hissed in response by: eliXelx [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 11, 2008 5:12 PM

The following hissed in response by: Dick E

Dafydd-

OK, so if we accept that Barack Obama wasn’t calling Sarah Palin a pig, what interpretation of his words led to the “outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience”?

The difference between the hypothetical about John McCain calling a spade a spade and Obama’s comment is context. Just a few days earlier, Palin, in what was one of her most memorable lines, had referred, essentially, to putting lipstick on HERSELF. The audience knew this very well and drew an inescapable conclusion, whether Obama intended it or not.

The above hissed in response by: Dick E [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 11, 2008 10:29 PM

The following hissed in response by: Cain

Exactly right. I read a similar argument where someone suggested a McCain attack on Obama for having Marxist/Socialist leanings. What would have been the reaction if the McCain campaign had compared Obama to a watermelon? Green on the outside and red on the inside. The roar from the left would have been deafening.

The above hissed in response by: Cain [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 15, 2008 8:30 PM

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