# Latest fraudulent, bullshit, manufactured outrage against Obama **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 10, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883 "2008-09-10T01:36:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/61 "2008-09-10T16:29:11Z")
> [@ManiacMan](#): > > Cite? [Here’s one example from a year ago](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/13/AR2007091301679_pf.html) > [@](#): > > “I think that both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker are capable people who have been given an impossible assignment,” Sen. Barack Obama said yesterday in a telephone interview. “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.” Not exactly the same context, but an example that well precedes Palin. This is kind of hard to do searches for because all you get is hits from yesterday, but I’ve seen the cable news networks playing clips of other examples from both Obama and McCain. It’s been a stock phrase for Obama for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/62 "2008-09-10T16:40:25Z")
Gods, I hate to say it but I actually agree with DtC. I don’t think it was Obama intentionally calling Palin a pig. I think my head just exploded… -XT ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/63 "2008-09-10T16:44:46Z")
We all better get used to this type of thing. Whenever the Obama camp says something that the McCain people will have trouble answering, we’ll get fake umbrage-- just look at the link I provided upthread. This particular line probably won’t work forever. Just as ‘noun verb POW’ lost it’s bite due to overuse, so will the ‘stop picking on poor, widdle Sarah’. But don’t fret Republicans, the McCain campaign will think of something else to cry about-- so long as it doesn’t focus on any issues. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/64 "2008-09-10T17:49:44Z")
I wonder if McCain consulted with his former adviser Torie Clarke on the issue. [Her book](http://www.amazon.com/Lipstick-Pig-Winning-No-Spin-Someone/dp/0743271165/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221068778&sr=8-1)may offer some pointers. If not, one of [these](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lipstick+on+a+pig&x=0&y=0) might. (Again, Torie Clarke is McCain’s former adviser- and it says so on the back of the book itself.) ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/65 "2008-09-10T17:50:33Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > I guess the question is where do we set the bar for outrage. If people found putting Paris Hilton into a McCain commercial to be racist… Racist??? I heard a lot of things about that commercial, but “racist” certainly wasn’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/66 "2008-09-10T18:03:31Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > [Here’s one example from a year ago](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/13/AR2007091301679_pf.html) > > Not exactly the same context, but an example that well precedes Palin. This is kind of hard to do searches for because all you get is hits from yesterday, but I’ve seen the cable news networks playing clips of other examples from both Obama and McCain. It’s been a stock phrase for Obama for a long time. Oh, so know he thinks our troops are pigs! Even harsher, when you remember how Muslims feel about pork, and all! ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/67 "2008-09-10T18:03:40Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > I think it’s hard to escape the idea that your making some kind of insinuation when you use that phrase in association with a woman or her arguments. Hokay. You can’t escape the conclusion that McCain called Hillary Clinton a “pig”. Your attempts to draw some sort of distinction between the two cases are simply piling a Pelion on an Ossa on an Olympus of bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/68 "2008-09-10T18:08:49Z")
There was like one NYT columnist who suggested the juxtaposition of Obama with two white girls might have been intended to play subliminally to racist fears (ala the [Harold Ford “Call me” ad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Ford,_Jr.#2006_Senate_campaign)), but it wasn’t an intepretation that had any widesporead currency. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/69 "2008-09-10T19:18:27Z")
First things first, I don’t hear Sarah complaining about the comment. Women I’ve spoken to are, to say the least, outraged. Every. Last. One. Attack one you attack them all apparently. Still, this is politics, if she truly is hurt by the implication, then she’s weak. If she isn’t she’s going to find a way to make the most of it and LOOK like she was, that’s how it goes. Second. Even Jesse Jr. (my congressman) was on the radio today coming out soft against the comments. What it amounts to is the same thing that happened in high school with the loud-mouthed girl, you have your girlfriend and her pals kick her ass. He should have sent Hills or Sibelius or another of the demo-chicas in to put the lipstick on the pig. HE shouldn’t have done it because 1. It give the opposition ammunution and 2. Because it appears insensitive and if you’ve built your campaign on being the guy who doesn’t lower himself to personal attacks and prove the point by inferring a personal attack, well, people who will vote for you, especially people who are on the fence, might sway their votes to the poor, poor hockey mom with the down’s baby and pregnant teen who’s just trying to make a difference -sniff- in Washington -sniff-sniff- and work -sob- for -sob- teh people! WAAHHH! /tissue ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/70 "2008-09-10T19:19:31Z")
I think Obama made it worse by throwing in the “old fish” line. I don’t know what he intended, but I can see where people could perceive it as: lipstick on pig = Palin old fish = McCain I actually think it’s kind of funny, if you take off your offenderati hat. I kinda hope he did mean it that way. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/71 "2008-09-10T19:21:12Z")
She probably laughed at it. Say what you will about Palin, she ain’t no wilting flower. -XT ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/72 "2008-09-10T19:21:55Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Wait, this isn’t the _latest_. [This is the latest bullshit outrage.](http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/09/biden.special.needs/index.html) > > Biden asks if Palin cares so much about special needs children, why does she oppose stem cell research? Camp McCain’s response? > > HOW DARE YOU!!! > Edited to clarify-- Biden didn’t even mention Palin’s name but somehow just mentioning special needs children and the political issues that surround them is sinking to a “new low”. Now THAT is bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/73 "2008-09-10T19:24:45Z")
[QUOTE=Little Plastic Ninja] Let’s see how he could have made it better or worse! “You can put a pig in the Alaska governor’s mansion, but it’s still a pig.” “You can put a pig in Oscar de la Renta, but it will NEVER appreciate it.” [/QUOTE] Let’s just be thankful Obama didn’t say that the Republicans were trying to “put tits on a bull”. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/74 "2008-09-10T20:05:17Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > Racist??? I heard a lot of things about that commercial, but “racist” certainly wasn’t one of them. Yeah, some commentators got pretty agitated about how putting blond white women into the commercial was some sort of coded “OMG they want our wimmins!” kinda deal. Pretty silly, and so is the current controversy. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/75 "2008-09-10T20:09:25Z")
I must say, the “McCain-Palin in 2008 – Join The McCain-Palin Team and Contribute Today! Thank You” ad at the bottom of this thread was amusing… ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/76 "2008-09-10T20:35:53Z")
I think with the youtube clips of McCain (and Cheney) using exactly the same line, the clips of Obama using the line long before Palin was in the race, the fact that McCain’s former advisor used it for the name of her memoir, the fact that even Mike Huckabee stated he doesn’t think it had anything to do with Palin, Obama’s refusal to apologize for something he never said or inferred to begin with, etc., McCain really needs to retract this accusation. It will even help him- it’s a way of proving “I can admit when I’m wrong” without reversing himself on anything _major_. Otherwise he’s going to have “a lot of ‘splainin’ to do”, especially with the Chelsea Reno skeleton in his closet as a side dish to using the same comment about Hillary’s health care plan, and this can blow up on him. (I hope, if he hasn’t already, that Obama will make use of the YouTube clip of McCain.) ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/77 "2008-09-10T21:30:59Z")
I guess I’m the only one who thought that the republicans would think talking about a stinking fish would be considered a sexist remark as well. Good to know that they at least didn’t take that part as a slam on Palin. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/78 "2008-09-10T22:05:45Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > I guess I’m the only one who thought that the republicans would think talking about a stinking fish would be considered a sexist remark as well. Good to know that they at least didn’t take that part as a slam on Palin. Actually, that has been suggested as well by some commentators. I saw one blawg (law professor blog) which noted the old “smells like fish” thing. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/79 "2008-09-10T23:45:26Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > First things first, I don’t hear Sarah complaining about the comment. Women I’ve spoken to are, to say the least, outraged. Every. Last. One. Really. That’s quite interesting. If so, it may complicate Obama’s attempts to (I’m thinking rightly) cast this as a phony controversy - it might make those women think that he’s saying “I meant what I said - my female opponent is a pig!” Though I’m not sure what those women think in the first place, politically. At any rate, [there are definitely conservatives](http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjFlMTY4ZjhhNjk0MjlmNTAxODIyZjJiOGYxYzlmNjc=) (including [conservative women](http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmNkMjJhNTUwOGMyZmUzNTc3YTA4YzQ1NWRkMjYxYjQ=)) who’re looking at all this in a bit of dread, noting that this seems to be the exact kind of oversensitivity that they constantly mock the PC left for, and are concerned about what it means for their principles. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883/80 "2008-09-10T23:55:42Z")
Having now seen the video, I think it’s unfair to say that he was talking about Palin. In context, he seems to be talking about McCain’s policies. I’m still puzzled by the “old fish” comment, though. He had to know that would be seen as an insult to McCain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-fraudulent-bullshit-manufactured-outrage-against-obama/462883.md?page=5)