Obama campaign "jumps the shark" in nasty reference to Palin

Hopefully you know what "jump the shark" means? It's origin lies in a popular and long-running sitcom episode in which "The Fonz" jumps a shark tank. It is the moment when a series or a movie or some other long-running process moves in such a ridiculous direction that there is no turning back. It is the beginning of the end. Michael Dukakis had such a moment in his campaign. Howard Dean has been there. We know that Dan Quayle has never been the same.

Just a few days after Governor Sarah Palin compared "hockey moms" and herself to a "Pit Bull with lipstick", Barack Obama has sunk to a new low and perhaps marked the beginning of the end of his long run at the forefront of Democratic candidates and his Presidential ambitions:

John McCain, Sarah Palin are like lipstick on pig - Obama

BARACK Obama has dismissed the US presidential campaign of rivals John McCain and Sarah Palin as putting "lipstick on a pig" in his most direct attack on the Republican odd couple aiming to keep him out of the White House.

However the line is being interpreted by some - especially those in the McCain camp - as a personal sledge against Mrs Palin, Senator McCain's surprise running mate who described herself as a "pit bull with lipstick" when she accepted the Republican vice-presidential nomination at the party's national convention last week.

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That observation is from the Aussies, with no dog in this fight! The remark has been a "cheapshot heard 'round the world!"

Obama: Lipstick, pigs and hockey moms

by Mike Dorning

LEBANON, Va.--If Barack Obama wasn't thinking about the joke Sarah Palin told about lipstick and hockey moms at the Republican National Convention last week, the crowd here this evening certainly was.

Remember the joke? What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Answer: Lipstick.


Well, in the midst of an extended riff on why Republican rivals John McCain and Sarah Palin would not bring change to Washington, he blurted out a familiar metaphor that took on added meaning given the Palin's tongue-in-cheek definition of her kind.

"You can put lipstick on a pig," Obama declared. "It's still a pig."

No mention of Palin. But the audience roared and jumped to its feet.

Obama paused to take in the applause and then moved on to another (also overused) metaphor.

"You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change," he began. "It's still gonna stink after eight years."

Sarah Palin and her husband are, among other things, commercial fishermen!

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McCain camp: Obama's 'lipstick' remark disgraceful

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Tue Sep 9, 9:30 PM ET

LEBANON, Va. - What's the difference between the presidential campaign before and after the national political conventions? Lipstick. The colorful cosmetic has become a political buzzword, thanks to Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's joke in her acceptance speech that lipstick is the only thing that separates a hockey mom like her from a pit bull.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama told an audience Tuesday that GOP presidential nominee John McCain says he'll change Washington, but he's just like President Bush.

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to Palin's joke even if it's not what Obama meant. "It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years."

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I think Hugh Hewitt has nailed it...

Obama's "Lipstick On A Pig" Smear

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 7:00 PM

Either Obama's dim as can be, or he is angry at having been thrown backwards week after week. When Obama denies having targeted Palin, keep in mind that everyone instantly made the connection. Is Obama really that clueless? An angry outburst does less damage than his pleading he didn't mean it that way. Remember the raised finger?

Keep in mind as well that Obama has been telling us his genius at running his campaign is evidence of his fitness to be president. Some genius. We are watching a crack-up under pressure. His Chicago handlers might be able to put the wheels back on, but we now have a glimpse of "glass jaw" Obama in a crisis.

UPDATE: Callers and e-mailers are furious with Obama. Beyond furious, really. MSM is ignoring this tsunami of a story thus far, but it has traveled around the globe and back and will keep traveling. Millions of women will never forget and they won't forgive.

As promised, here's the James Bennett article of Sarah Palin from the UK's Telegraph.

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If you haven't seen it, watch the clip on youtube. Obama delivers the line and pauses, waiting for the big laugh he KNOWS he is going to get because he KNOWS his audience is making the connection. Joe Biden made some reference to lipstick in a remark yesterday as well, nothing quite as obvious. But what is obvious is the smear, the denigration of Governor Palin by Obama. It reminds one of the way Obama's old paster, Jeremiah Wright, used to throw out a slur and wait for the crowd to react. I guess Obama was listening after all...and if not, one of his speech writers was. No one with half a brain could read that line in that speech and not see the connection with Palin's joking remark. Especially after he makes a reference to "Karl Rove politics" with a straight face (seeing as how he is the product of the Chicago political machine)!

So, you tell me. Is Barack Obama that stupid? Or is he just that nasty? Either way, it could well be the beginning of the end...

Chris Muir gives us a stylish concluding statement.