PrintSeptember 11, 2008
Pigs, Obama and Sarah Palin
The word "lipstick" became a potent political symbol on September 3, 2008, when Sarah Palin metaphorically expressed to the American people the dual nature of her persona: the tough bulldog reformer and the feminine, attractive, grown-up lipstick-wearing executive.
When reproaching John McCain's message of change in Virginia on Tuesday, Barack Obama linked the symbol of the feminine half of the Palin's duality to a pig. Apparently extemporizing while speaking before a crowd of enthusiastic supporters, a tired cliché of disparagement connecting pigs to lipstick somehow presented itself to his mind as he sought to please his audience.
The most memorable line from the most memorable speech in recent American history impressed itself on Obama's mind over the past week, as he pondered what went so terribly wrong. The night that phrase entered history was the night everything really began to fall apart for his campaign. His appeal as something fresh and different was suddenly road kill, and the perp flaunted her lipstick and cracked wise about how tough she is.
The connection between lipstick and animal life was definitely floating around in his subconscious, if you believe such a thing exists.
Grant him the assumption he intended only to refer to McCain's policies with the joke, and his latest explanation to David Letterman that she is the lipstick and McCain is the pig. There is still the question of why lipstick+pig had enough juice to find expression on the spur of the moment, as he searched for phrases to feed the crowd (who, by the way, responded with wild enthusiasm).
Does Barack Obama not understand that Americans do not like when someone compares their women to pigs? Such a view of women is truly foreign to America. Why on earth would Obama make such a sly equation, even if subconsciously, as he was extemporizing in front of an enthusiastic crowd of devotees?
There is, however, an audience which appreciates such insults, one possessed of an altogether different mindset than most American voters.
Is it possible that Barack Obama's apparent condescension towards women is the legacy of the Muslim school he went to in his formative primary school years? We have it on no lesser authority than that of New York Times that Obama attended such an institution in his single digit years as a child in Indonesia, returning to Hawaii at the age of ten to his grandparents' care.
And even though pig-lipstick asides may elicit shouts of approval in Indonesian madrasas, they do not play well with the American people. It may strike Obama as odd, but normal Americans -- the very people whose votes he seeks -- admire women who live their lives and raise their families in the spirit of traditional American values. Has he not noticed the waves of enthusiasm that swept this country when people learned who Sarah Palin is?
There is no doubt that Obama's sexist attitude will go down well with publicly-declared Islamic supporters such as Hamas' political guru Ahmed Yousef ("we hope he will win the election"), Louis Farrakhan ("this young man is the hope of the entire world"), and Libyan President Muamar Khadafi who said in his endorsement speech that "all the people in the Arab and Islamic world and in Africa applauded this man. They welcomed him and prayed for his success."
Obama is greatly mistaken if he thinks that equating Sarah Palin with a pig will endear him to ordinary Americans. He would do well to remember that even though Islamists may have cast their make believe votes already, the American people have not yet done so in real life.
From the moment she stepped on the national stage, it was obvious to most that Sarah Palin is the real deal -- a genuine American in the best sense of the term. Strong, honest, self-reliant, diligent, principled, optimistic and fearless, she embodies the spirit that made the United States of America, the greatest nation on earth. A woman with deep love of God, of her family and of her country, she is the quintessential product of America's heartland.
One doesn't have to watch her very long to know that Sarah Palin would never choose as her ‘spiritual guide' a man who shouts from his pulpit "God damn America!" and who gives life-time achievement awards to Islamist extremists like Louis Farrakhan. Sarah Palin would not put up with such a "mentor" and "advisor" for one minute much less for twenty years. Sarah Palin would also never associate herself with unrepentant domestic terrorists like Bill Ayers. Neither is she embarrassed to place her hand over her heart at the playing of the national anthem or to wear an American flag pin.
Sarah Palin is not ashamed of her country, and we can be certain that she will not travel abroad acknowledging America's mostly imaginary "mistakes." Sarah Palin will not stand before those who envy our success and imply that America wantonly tortures its terrorist detainees. Sarah Palin loves the United States of America. About that there can be no doubt.
A devout Christian, a loving mother, a devoted wife, a successful governor and a true patriot, Sarah Palin is a shinning example of the wholesomeness of American traditions. Standing next to her, Barack Obama -- a former street agitator, Ivy League lawyer, follower of Jeremiah Wright, scheming Chicago politician and Islamists' favorite candidate -- suddenly seems rather small and phony.
Barack Obama's likening of a great American like Sarah Palin to a pig makes smaller still.
