Kissing Pigs

Not that this is any big deal, but I sometimes wonder if the media, and perhaps most of America (or at least, America as it appears in the media) lives in a cave (or a small box).

In a campaign speech the other day, Barack Obama said, in regard to the GOP's questionable usurpation of the "change" theme, that if you put lipstick on a pig it's still a pig.  Now, I don't know how many times in my life I've heard that phrase.  My favorite variation is that a pig in a dress is still a pig, but whatever.

Apparently some ignorant folk believe the remark was intended to call GOP Veep Wannabe Sarah Palin a "pig."  This, because in her rousing yet hollow convention speech, she mentioned that the difference between a hockey-mom and a pit bull was lipstick.  It was a stupid line then, and it remains a stupid line now.

But in order to believe the Obama comment was somehow formulated to respond to Palin's stupid line, you have to have lived in a cave (or a small box) for basically your entire life.  Otherwise, you would know that the lipsticked pig remark is an old-school, tried-and-true, time-tested and pundit-approved colliquialism that is shorthand for you can't make a substantively bad thing good by applying cosmetic changes. 

In this case, the Obama comment was meant to say that you can't change the tired, hackneyed, tried-and-failed ideas of the GOP by adding an exciting and energizing personality into the mix.  (Or, maybe he was saying that you can make John McCain look like a maverick by propping him up next to a sexy librarian - I don't know).

But seriously, to those who are currently foaming at the mouth over this, stop being stupid.

And eat some bacon.