WEBCommentary Contributor

Author: Michael J. Gaynor
Date:  September 11, 2008

Topic category:  Other/General

Obama Campaign Self-Destructing


If Michelle Obama had been a hockey mom who used lipstick and used Palin’s “lipstick” line at the Democrat National Convention and then McCain had remarked that “you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig,” what would Team Obama be saying?

Rookie United States Senator and 2008 Democrat presidential campaign Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. went into self-destruction mode after the McCain/Palin ticket took the lead in the polls.

Obama appeared on ABC’s “This Week” and uttered the words, “my Muslim faith.” George Stephanapoulos immediately tried to help but it was too late.

Why would a man who has been denying the he ever was a Muslim say “my Muslim faith” if he never was a Muslim?

The official explanation is that Obama misspoke.

Does it pass the laugh test?

Perhaps Obama IS stuck in misspeaking mode. Shortly after, the Obama campaign suffered another self-inflicted wound: Obama's “lipstick on a pig” crack.

Obama, September 9, 2008: “Let's just list this for a second. John McCain says he's about change, too. Except -- and so I guess his whole angle is, ‘Watch out, George Bush, except for economic policy, health-care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy, and Karl Rove-style politics. We're really gonna shake things up in Washington.’ That's not change. That's just calling some -- the same thing, something different. But you know, you can -- you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig.”

Former Mass. Gov. Jane Swift called the Obama crack a sexist jab at Palin, saying "As far as I know there is only one candidate in this contest who wears lipstick."

Urban Dictionary definition of “lipstick on a pig”:

”slang for when someone tries to dress something up, but is still that something. usually used on ugly broads, when they put on a skirt and some lipstick and well, they still look like the same digusting pig.

“’You put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig.’”

The official explanation is that Obama was not referring to the latest Republican star, Governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican vice president candidate Sarah Palin.

If you don’t think that Obama was alluding to Palin’s joke at the Republican National Convention, you should be paying closer attention.

Democrat strategist and media consultant Steve McMahon earlier called Palin a “porker.”

But Palin is not overweight.

Media Matters is spinning shamelessly for Obama:

“In a blog post, Wall Street Journal reporter Amy Chozick baselessly asserted that Sen. Barack Obama's statement that ‘[y]ou can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig’ ‘played on [Gov. Sarah] Palin's joke during the Republican National Convention that the only difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom was lipstick.’ Chozick provided no evidence for this assertion, and, in fact, Obama did not mention Palin in at least the 65 words preceding his ‘lipstick on a pig’ comment. Indeed, his preceding comments consisted of what he described as a ‘list’ of Sen. John McCain's policies that Obama said were no different from President Bush's.”

Obama’s remark was NOT too subtle for his audience, however.

Media Matters added that “McCain reportedly used the same ‘common expression’ in reference to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's health-care proposal” and ‘Obama has also reportedly used it in the past.’”

But Senator Clinton never identified herself as a hockey mom, like Palin.

And McCain obvious was referring to Senator Clinton’s health care plan, not Senator Clinton.

The Chicago Tribune reported on October 12, 2007 that McCain, in criticizing Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health care proposals that require too much government regulation, had said that Senator Clinton’s health-care plan was "eerily reminiscent" of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the early 1990s and then added, "I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.”

There’s nothing ambiguous about that.

Obama apologist and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson rushed to Obama’s defense to note that Obama had used the “lipstick on a pig’ line before.

Obama, September 14, 2007: "George Bush has given a mission to General Petraeus, and he has done his best to try to figure out how to put lipstick on a pig."

There’s nothing ambiguous about that either. (And neither President Bush nor General Petraeus wears lipstick.)

If Michelle Obama had been a hockey mom who used lipstick and used Palin’s “lipstick” line at the Democrat National Convention and then McCain had remarked that “you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig,” what would Team Obama be saying?

Michael J. Gaynor


Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.


Copyright © 2008 by Michael J. Gaynor
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