The author should understand the context of the remarks and what followed. There is no doubt in my mind that the lipstick remark was aimed at Palin, particularly re her home run acceptance speech where she put the word lipstick into the national race. Obama was using his lipstick on a pig remark to disparage Palin [who had achieved rock star status at this point] and his audience knew it.
Well, just keep in mind...you can put a monkey in a suit but it is still a monkey!
The last paragraph says it all imho