Lipstick on a what?

It turns out that one of my favorite phrases – “lipstick on a pig” – has become an issue in the 2008 campaign.  Write Side has the details:

This morning in Lebanon, Virginia, just one county away from “macaca” fame, Barack Obama called Sarah Palin a pig. And the crowd knew it.

The Obama campaign is trying to brush this off.

But consider Rep. Russ Carnahan’s (D-MO) introduction of Joe Biden this morning in St. Louis.

“For all his tough talk [McCain] buckled to the right wing of his party in his choice. Picked someone with zero experience in national government, zero experience in foreign affairs. There’s no way you can dress up that record, even with a lot of lipstick,” he said.

Somewhere out there, there’s a lipstick stained “Talking Points” memo.

H/T Ben Smith at Politico

Now, personally, I’m fairly sure Obama knew the reaction he would get.  He has a habit of sending out coded words and messages that people are supposed to get without them being explicit enough for him to be called on it (remember the “brush-off” from the primary campaign?).

That said, Governor Palin herself showed the way on how to deal with this nonsense, with a smile and a stiletto.  So yes, make it clear what Obama was trying to do, but also make it clear that we should just expect more of the same from a guy who’s having real trouble with the fact that he could lose a general election for the first time in his life.