Shameful "News"

Lipstick: While our nation faces a showdown with Iran and Russia and home mortgage default is the highest since the Great Depression, the John McCain presidential campaign is talking about lipstick. Give us a break! Enough! Cut the crap. For years, the Republicans have used the expression putting "lipstick on a pig" to describe spending programs and policies of which they disagree. A McCain publicist even wrote a book about the expression with that same exact title. A soundbite in Sarah Palin's vice presidential acceptance speech became a U-Tube overnight sensation. "Do you know the difference between a hockey mom and pit bull?" she asked. "Lipstick." Along comes Barack Obama on the campaign trail detailing a litany of Bush policy failures. He described them in terms exactly the way McCain and his fellow Republicans have done against the Democrats. "It's like putting lipstick on a pig," Obama said. "If you wrap fish in a newspaper, it still stinks." His audience laughed. In knee-jerk reaction, the McCain campaign posted a TV attack ad claiming Obama was calling Palin a pig. Say what??? Anyone with a brain with the mental capacity of a rattlesnake knows damn well Obama was talking about Bush policies and not slurring Palin with a sexist remark. Yet, the lipstick charade controlled Wednesday's cable news talking points. Ridiculous. Obama apologists say at worse it was an untimely use of the lipstick analogy. Hey, no need to apologize. The McCain camp must have an unseemly low opinion of American voters. As Obama has said, "they are not stupid." You can say or believe anything you want about the Democrats, but in this case they are right: McCain is serving not his country but the lowest of partisan distractions. He'd rather win an election by subterfuge than stick to substantive issues. And, he's the one who said he plans to run a clean campaign and debate the great issues of the day. No amount of mascara will disguise the bullshit.