Obama & Lipstick On A Governor II (Updated)

I blogged below on Obama's incredible gaffe of making an analogy that compared Gov. Sarah Palin with a pig. Obama, operating under the theory that a deity can do no wrong, has refused to defuse this situation with an apology. Call it doubling down on hubris and stupidity. The McCain Camp has already released an ad on this one. It is simple but very effective.



As highlighted in Tammy Bruce's essay below, female Hillary supporters in particular are already livid over perceived misogynistic attacks on Hillary by Obama and the media. At the Democratic convention, Bill and Hill went a long way to suturing the gaping wound this had caused. But before the healing could occur, Obama just tore out the sutures and rubbed in some salt. I wonder just how significant the ramifications of this will be? Much more on this at Memorandum, Big Lizards and Hot Air.

Update: The video has been pulled by Youtube at request of CBS. According to Ben Smith: "“One of the great lessons of that campaign is the continued and accepted role of sexism in American life," Couric is quoted in the ad. In the original clip, she was talking about Hillary Clinton; the ad applies her words to Sarah Palin." Okay, I have to go with CBS on this one. The McCain camp should have put in enough of the Couric portion to show that she was talking about Hillary. It would have made no difference to the meaning of the ad, and it would have kept out any charge of being misleading. A minor misstep by McCain.


The Obama camp is pointing out that others, including McCain, have use the "lipstick on a pig" expression before as proof that Obama did not misuse the phrase. Sorry, but context is everything when one is trying to determine meaning. And given Palin's well known joke about the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull, and given Obama's follow on reference to the stench of "old fish" clearly aimed at McCain, there is no question that by far the most reasonable interpretation is that Obama made a low class slur. Certainly his audience immediately understood it that way. Were I Obama and had I meant otherwise, I would simply apologize to anyone who interpreted it otherwise. That is not what he is doing. Indeed, he is whining about being attacked with the "gender" card. Super. That said, McCain has milked this one for all its worth at this point. Time to move on - unless the One wants to do us the favor of keeping it front and center of the news cycle.

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From PUMA to Palinocrat

Tammy Bruce, lifelong Democrat, Hillary supporter, and former head of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW, the National Organization For Women, has crafted a fascinating essay discussing the ramifications of the Palin nomination. The combination of misogynistic attacks on Hillary during the Democratic primaries and the far left's reaction to McCain's pick of Gov. Palin as a running mate have laid bare the canard that the far left sought equality for women - or as I argue here, any minority. That reality has dawned on Ms. Bruce. In response, she eloquently explains how this completely changes the dynamics of the social war that the U.S. has been engaged in for the past half century and she explains why she will now support the McCain Palin ticket:

This from Tammy Bruce republished at RCP:

In the shadow of the blatant and truly stunning sexism launched against the Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign, and as a pro-choice feminist, I wasn't the only one thrilled to hear Republican John McCain announce Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. . . . For Democrats, she offers . . . a chance to vote for a someone who is her own woman, and who represents a party that, while we don't agree on all the issues, at least respects women enough to take them seriously.

. . . Clinton voters, in particular, have received a political wake-up call they never expected. Having watched their candidate and their principles betrayed by the very people who are supposed to be the flame-holders for equal rights and fairness, they now look across the aisle and see a woman who represents everything the feminist movement claimed it stood for. Women can have a family and a career. We can be whatever we choose, on our own terms. For some, that might mean shooting a moose. For others, perhaps it's about shooting a movie or shooting for a career as a teacher. However diverse our passions, we will vote for a system that allows us to make the choices that best suit us. It's that simple.

The rank bullying of the Clinton candidacy during the primary season has the distinction of simply being the first revelation of how misogynistic the party has become. The media led the assault, then the Obama campaign continued it. . . .

Virtually moments after the GOP announcement of Palin for vice president, pundits on both sides of the aisle began to wonder if Clinton supporters - pro-choice women and gays to be specific - would be attracted to the McCain-Palin ticket. The answer is, of course. There is a point where all of our issues, including abortion rights, are made safer not only if the people we vote for agree with us - but when those people and our society embrace a respect for women and promote policies that increase our personal wealth, power and political influence.

Make no mistake - the Democratic Party and its nominee have created the powerhouse that is Sarah Palin, and the party's increased attacks on her (and even on her daughter) reflect that panic.

The party has moved from taking the female vote for granted to outright contempt for women. That's why Palin represents the most serious conservative threat ever to the modern liberal claim on issues of cultural and social superiority. Why? Because men and women who never before would have considered voting for a Republican have either decided, or are seriously considering, doing so.

They are deciding women's rights must be more than a slogan and actually belong to every woman, not just the sort approved of by left-wing special interest groups.

Palin's candidacy brings both figurative and literal feminist change. The simple act of thinking outside the liberal box, which has insisted for generations that only liberals and Democrats can be trusted on issues of import to women, is the political equivalent of a nuclear explosion.

The idea of feminists willing to look to the right changes not only electoral politics, but will put more women in power at lightning speed as we move from being taken for granted to being pursued, nominated and appointed and ultimately, sworn in.

It should be no surprise that the Democratic response to the McCain-Palin ticket was to immediately attack by playing the liberal trump card that keeps Democrats in line - the abortion card - where the party daily tells restless feminists the other side is going to police their wombs.

The power of that accusation is interesting, coming from the Democrats - a group that just told the world that if you have ovaries, then you don't count.

Yes, both McCain and Palin identify as anti-abortion, but neither has led a political life with that belief, or their other religious principles, as their signature issue. Politicians act on their passions - the passion of McCain and Palin is reform. In her time in office, Palin's focus has not been to kick the gays and make abortion illegal; it has been to kick the corrupt and make wasteful spending illegal. The Republicans are now making direct appeals to Clinton supporters, knowingly crafting a political base that would include pro-choice voters.

On the day McCain announced her selection as his running mate, Palin thanked Clinton and Ferraro for blazing her trail. A day later, Ferraro noted her shock at Palin's comment. You see, none of her peers, no one, had ever publicly thanked her in the 24 years since her historic run for the White House. Ferraro has since refused to divulge for whom she's voting. Many more now are realizing that it does indeed take a woman - who happens to be a Republican named Sarah Palin.

Read the entire article. Ms. Bruce is an eloquent writer. And I believe she is correct. Gov. Palin, by virtue of being a self-made woman, is a "nuclear explosion" in the middle of the far left narrative. This stuff just gets more interesting by the day.

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Tammy Bruce On The Feminist Warpath

One of the most scandalous aspects of the modern feminist movement in America is their utter partisan bent. Events such as the plight of the young saudi victim of gang rape now sentenced to prison and flogging or even the more general treatment of women in most of the Middle East elicits not a word of reproach while the same organization rails against President Bush and the war in Iraq. And all this has Tammy Bruce, former leader in the National Organization for Women, hunting scalps:

British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons, an unimposing woman of 54, was found guilty of "inciting religious hatred" and sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation by a court in Sudan’s Khartoum after allowing her 7-year-old students to name a teddy bear “Muhammad.”

In the meantime, Islamist fundamentalists have called for her execution, and her safety is in constant jeopardy. Demonstrations have increased, with crowds carrying machetes, shouting in part: “Execute her! Kill her, kill her by firing squad.”

. . . Apparently, naming a cuddly bear Muhammad insults the prophet, while mass-murdering homicide bombers named Muhammad don’t.

During the past 14 years at least, certainly since Usama bin Laden declared ‘war’ on Western civilization in 1993, we’ve all been exposed to the literal madness of Islamic fundamentalism. We’ve seen the curtain pulled back on how craven American leftists can be as well. Yes, it took a teddy bear to highlight more clearly than ever the psychosis of the enemy, and the failure of the feminist establishment.

There has been appropriate international outrage over the treatment of Gibbons, from virtually everyone except American “feminists.” Multiple Muslim groups in the U.K. have condemned the sentence. Even the popular little boy in Mrs. Gibbons’ class who suggested the name for the bear came to her defense, explaining that he named the bear after himself.

Yet, when asked by FOX News for a comment about the situation, a National Organization for Women spokeswoman said they were "not putting out a statement or taking a position."

This is how depraved the American left has become. A little Muslim boy in Sudan shows more courage and conviction for a woman under fire than a bunch of women sitting in Washington, D.C., who preen themselves on being the premiere “advocates” for women.

It’s been apparent for years that the American feminist establishment is nothing more than a shill for the shallow leftists in the Democrat party, wrapping themselves in the feminist label for convenience. Groups like NOW and Eleanor Smeal’s Feminist Majority, also amazingly silent in the past five years about Islamic terrorism and violence against women, use women’s issues as nothing more than slogans and chants in their efforts to gain political power.

. . . Calling attention to abuse, violence and oppression is something the left claims it does, but these days they’re more than willing to throw those who need our voices under the bus. Their obsession is to make sure the leftist false construct of an evil George Bush and oppressive United States won’t be eclipsed by the truth — the truth of a world where our enemy targets women on a daily basis for terror, torture, oppression and murder as our troops risk and give their lives to banish that horror from the lives of tens of millions.

. . .There have also been a few organizations since 2003 that have done astounding authentic feminist work for women and children around the world, and in Afghanistan and Iraq specifically. The American military, without even a passing "thank you" from so-called feminist leaders Smeal or Steinem or Gandy, have liberated over 53 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq, with a good 25 million of those being women and children. . .

Read the entire article.

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