Posted on 09/09/2008 6:43:30 PM PDT by flyfree
In all the furor over the Obama "pig" quote, commentators forgot to examine his entire attack:
"You can put lipstick on a pig. "It's still a pig."
"You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink."
When read in the entire context you can see what he seems to mean with his dual animate male/female references and why he probably evoked two metaphors: most would think that Obama is talking about both on the ticket and his anger how each has expropriated his change motif.
So in that sense he appears both to insult the 72-year old McCain as the "old fish" that is still going to "stink", and to refer to Palin, who had famously evoked the metaphor of lipstick in a nationally televised address, as still the pig despite the lipstick.
The fact that he used two metaphors to attack the two, and used expressions referring both to age and Palin's recent use of "lipstick" don't seem to be accidents and that's why the cooing crowd got the old fish=McCain;lipsticked pig=Palin immediately.
I'll leave it to others to deconstruct the historical use of pig as a sexist term in the recent climate of generic attacks on Sarah Palin.
PS. The VP nominee was just announced and already Biden has called her "good looking" and now “a step back for women”; most know what he intended, but like most Bidenisms they come out wrongly and confirm a popular perception that he suffers from logorhhea and that there is a different standard of reference applied to Palin due to her sex.
Someone in the campaign has got to manage the ex tempore carelessness.
That point will not be lost on millions of them.
don’t forget, this is the guy who flipped Hillary the bird in that North Carolina appearance after the PA primary (I believe).
Swine (or pig) - "Relates to the pink color of the pig's color. Tendency for the pig to lay in or eat anything. (Refers also to police men".
The Obamanation managed to commit both a sexist AND a racial slur all while running to be President of the United States. (Shaking my head in amazment here that this hateful slug of a man ever made it this far).
BTW: I've emailed this racial slur to both Hannity & Rush.
Obama’s been trying to wrap that old fish named Liberalism and call it “change”, but after nearly forty years it still stinks...
So what if he did come right out and call them a pig or an old fish? Are McCain and Palin 3rd graders that need to go crying that the mean boy called them a bad name? I thought Obama was the one with the thin skin.
I doubt that these remarks will bother either McCain or Palin, but I do think Republicans making a big deal over this makes them look childish.
“Fish” is what homosexuals regularly term women. No reason to believe that’s not what Obama meant.
I trust the McCain campaign will use this piece of idiocy from Obama to help America’s seniors see what Obama thinks of them.
so, explain how Toon’s “fairy Tale “ comment was turned so effectively against the Clinton campaign.
Classless as usual.
Forgive me FR ladies
A blind man walks by a fish stand and goes “Good morning ladies!”
Frankly, I don't believe all these guys trying to turn the "fish" and "stink" comment into a McCain attack are gay, but maybe they have never made the social acquaintance of REAL active gays.
Where I worked you couldn't escape them, plus dealing with the printing (and mailing) industry you found out quite quickly that all the gays weren't necessarily in Hollywood or San Francisco.
Yes, that's how women are referred to ~ as "fish".
End of story. You don't believe it, go make some new friends.
Of course, lipstick on a pig goes to Sarah. This man B.O. is despicable.
This is my opinion of course but I don't believe in "mistakes" like this, they are well planned and vicious.
So what? Obama calls the most popular woman in America a pig, and you say "so what"?
With that insult Obama just lost the election. He's done.
You're still here? It's over. Go home.
That's how I see it also....BUT listening to him speak the words I'm not sure if that was his intent. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt...AND will still thank him for knocking out Clinton Inc.
I suspect that most people find the “stinky fish” comment so far over the line that they are going to focus on the pig comment. Obviously the fish comment is much worse.
Men may not want to acknowledge it but women in America heard it loud and clear.
Obama will rue the day he made those comments. He lost the election today.
if the reference wasn’t intentional , it moves from the category of loathesome bullying to worrisome primary process emerging. If you put the guy under pressure and his mind resorts to this primitive level , he’s not very well wrapped himself.
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