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Putting Lipstick on a Flip-Flop is a Choice
By Brian | September 10, 2008 | Share on Facebook
OK, I need some serious help. I’ve resolved to stop posting so much about politics, and I can’t seem to make it stop. I promise to pepper in some lighter topics along the way, but please bear with me through November. The first step is admitting you have a problem, or so I’m told.
Anyway, three things triggered the “I gotta blog that” switch over the last few days, so in short bursts:
First I thought the American Flag Lapel Pin was the dumbest thing we’d hear about leading up to this election. Then, we started talking about who eats arugula salads vs. “common” salads and I was proven wrong. This morning, we have a new winner. “Lipstick on a pig” is an extremely common expression. The context was a discussion of McCain’s policies and the policies of George W. Bush and the GOP in general. He didn’t mention Sarah Palin in his talk, nor did he imply that he was talking about her. There are only three ties to Sarah Palin in this story at all: 1) she used the word “lipstick” in her convention acceptance speech, 2) she’s female, so she occasionally wears lipstick, and 3) the media will not miss a chance to news catalog a popular story no matter how stupid it is, and Sarah Palin is the story du jour. So shame on the McCain campaign for manufacturing scandals with what Barack Obama called “phony outrage,” but also (a lesser degree of) shame on the Obama campaign for accusing McCain of playing “the gender card.” This isn’t about gender, it’s just stupid.
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I’ve read in a few places now that Sarah Palin’s statement that she’s “proud of the choice that Bristol made” to keep her baby is inconsistent with her abortion stance. The standard line seems to be, “Sarah Palin doesn’t want women around the country to have the same choice her daughter had.” This isn’t as dumb as lipstick on pigs, but it’s still pretty disingenuous. Pro-life advocates, like Palin, believe that abortion is murder and, as such, want to make it illegal. Pro-choice advocates stress that a pregnant woman’s body is her own, and she should make the choice about what happens if she becomes pregnant. In this case, though, the pro-choice group seems to be implying that abortion is the only choice worth fighting for, by suggesting that if it were taken away, women would have no choice at all. This, of course, isn’t true. I’m sure the choices Palin were talking about for her daughter included things like adoption, foster care, surrogacy, etc.. I disagree with Palin on this issue, and I have other problems with how she handled the public disclosure of her daugther’s pregnancy, but I don’t think she’s being hypocritical about it.
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Finally, we have Barack Obama’s latest “flip-flop,” this time on the use of 527 groups. 527 groups are third-party groups that run campaign ads on behalf of a candidate, but aren’t part of (or contributing directly to) his campaign, and therefore aren’t restricted by those pesky $1,000 limits on campaign contributions, etc.. For the past year, Obama has been discouraging Democrats from forming these groups and telling donors not to contribute to them, so that he and he alone could control his message. Now that John McCain has seen a bump in the polls (and a bump in his ability to raise money), Obama has suddenly stopped discouraging them, and his campaign has made casual comments that seem to encourage them, like “I assume with [Republicans’] 527s stirring, some [Democratic] ones will as well.”
I’m not so fussed about whether he uses 527 groups or not. They’re legal, and the events above suggest nothing more to me than someone who was idealistically promising more than he could give and is now backing off that promise to be just like everyone else. What does bug me about this (and the similar situation regarding campaign funding) is the pattern I’m noticing with Obama about making and keeping promises. He seems convinced that if conditions change around him, and he feels he has a good reason to break a promise, then somehow it’s OK that he does so. This might be idealism run amok, but it also might be a tendency to paint himself into corners & then walk all over the nicely painted floor when he does. That kind of behavior will not help in his quest to rebuild our reputation with our allies, create open dialogue with hostile leaders, etc..
Think of this as not so much of a complaint as a concern. George W. Bush has a habit of stubbornly sticking with his original plan even when conditions around him suggest a change, and we see how well that played out in places like New Orleans and Iraq. If Obama has the opposite problem, the effects could be just as damaging…
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