McCain Camp Accuses Obama of Comparing Palin to a Pig
by FOXNews.com
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
John McCain’s campaign mobilized its new “Palin Truth Squad” Tuesday to accuse Barack Obama of comparing McCain’s running mate to a pig, and called on him to apologize.
The “Truth Squad” was announced as way for the McCain campaign to counter attacks on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and consists of dozens of McCain supporters.
The group’s first objection came just a couple hours later when Obama drew a pig analogy when describing his opponents before a Lebanon, Va., crowd.
“John McCain says he’s about change, too, and so I guess his whole angle is, ‘Watch out George Bush.’ Except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics … That’s not change. That’s just calling something the same thing, something different,” Obama said.
“But you know … you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. You know, you can … wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it’s still going to stink after eight years.”
The “lipstick on a pig” expression is common in Washington, D.C., and Obama’s campaign said he wasn’t referring to Palin.
But McCain supporter Jane Swift, former Republican governor of Massachusetts, said the line was clearly directed at the Alaska governor. That’s because Palin frequently jokes that “lipstick” is the difference between a hockey mom like herself and a pitbull.
“It’s clear to me … that Senator Obama owes Governor Palin an apology,” Swift said, calling Obama’s comments “disgraceful.”
She said, “This is just the latest in a series of comments that many folks like me will find offensive.”
The Obama campaign swiftly circulated a 2007 article that quoted McCain using the term “lipstick on a pig” to refer to a health care proposal from Hillary Clinton.
A questioner at the Virginia event also asked Obama to join Republicans and agree that candidates’ families and religion are off limits. Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter and the teachings of her church, the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church, have been the subject of scrutiny since McCain picked her as his running mate.
Obama responded that he already has said families are off limits and he’s very protective of his daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha. He said he doesn’t want their inevitable future mistakes to become newspaper fodder if he gets to the White House.
He stressed that he’s a Christian and “so the fact that Governor Palin is deeply religious, that’s a good thing.” He said poking around in her religion or saying it’s wrong is “offensive” and he wants to have a debate about the issues.
“But don’t give people some sort of religious litmus test because I don’t want somebody to question my faith and I’m certainly not going to question somebody else’s,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
