Yesterday, Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama tried to draw a comparison between the McCain campaign and the Bush administration by saying, "If you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig."
Joe Biden referred to Palin as a "backwards step for women."
Additionally, Biden was introduced by a Democratic congressman who said in reference to Sarah Palin, "No way you can dress up that record -- even with a lot of lipstick."
First, are Democrats sexist?
Second, are their attacks on Sarah Palin helping their cause or sinking their campaign?
Third, are they attacking the right candidate?
9 comments:
No Democrats are not sexist if they where they would not have chosen Hillary Clinton as one of there presidential choices.
I think they are reacting like any other political group would given the same opportunity taking every stab at the republican's that they can. Especially with such a huge campaign on the line, and what a victory it would be for the democrat’s.
Are they attacking the right candidate? I don’t know, I think they are using Palin or trying to use Palin to attack the Republican party as a whole. But I don’t know if it working or not. Palin seem’s to be a person like a lot of American’s faced with hard family choices and problems. But how she seem’s and who she really is, in my opinion, has not been truly established yet
First. Democrats are not being sexist in they're comments about lipstick. Some of the Republicans have additionally made comments using the lipstick on a pig analogy. I have not yet heard anyone from the Obama campaign state that Palin can not do the job because she is a woman.
Second. I don't believe the attacks on Palin are sinking their campaign. I feel that the selection of Sarah Palin brings up a lot of questions about the McCain campaign. Such as did they do their homework before selecting her? Does she really represent that McCain stands for? And did they pick a woman just to try and gain more female votes? There are certainly more qualified female candidates?
Third. I think they do need to focus more on McCain instead of going after Palin. The whole debate over Governor Palin has taken away the focus on the two main candidates. I think people do need to learn more about the VP candidates but we need to focus more on Obama and McCain. Because one of them will be sitting in the oval office for at least the next four years.
Obama's statement had nothing to do with Sarah Palin and is an extremely familiar saying, not to mention that the joke Palin told isn't even one she came up with (I've heard variations many times before). Biden's statement, on the other hand, was at the very least a foolish statement politically, and shouldn't have been said.
It's a bit bizarre seeing the McCain campaign claim ownership to a phrase they didn't invent to score political points off a folksy phrase that McCain has himself used against Hillary Clinton, a woman. Kudos to them for finding their feminist side, I guess. Even if it is a bit undercooked.
However, McCain does not support legislation that would guarantee women equal pay in the workplace, and Biden himself wrote the Violence Against Women Act, so I'm afraid these lipstick statements can only be up to 75% offensive as other sexist remarks.
I personally don't feel that the democrats are anymore sexist than republicans. However everybody is sexist to an extent, but to say that democrats are anymore sexist than republicans is false. I agree with Joe Bidden because Palin is not progressive and fails to promote womens rights as Roe v. Wade (abortion) and equal pay for equal work. Therefore I feel that there attacks on Palin are most defineitly helping there cause. I say attack every republican at every turn after the past eight years.
Food for thought: If ones self were working on a automobile, and one wrench wasn't working (Republicans-Bush) then you would change the wrench wouldn't you (Obama). The republicans never address the economy, because they have no clue what the hell there doing. The only thing they talk about about is terrorist. Republicans are just trying to winthis election out of fear.
First, i dont think all democrats are sexist. In fact its probably the number of sexist people in both parties, I think they are just getting to the other party in anyway possible.
Second, im not too sure that it would help their campaign at all it might drive away potential voting women because it could come off as being a sexist joke. However i think that a campaign advisor might steer them in the right direction on what to say and there may be an apology to come if the results from that statement have some consequences.
Third, i wouldnt necessarily say that they are attacking the right candidate they are just doing what all candidates do. Which is attack the biggest threat and dig up any dirt and make them look bad in anyway possible in hopes to help their campaign in their quest for victory.
No more than the Republicans!
I hadn't seen this "lipstick on a pig" thing that people were talking about, so if you haven't seen it, here's a video of the remark. I'm not sure if there were other videos that we should be looking at. If so, post them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPd4yk0x-eg
For those that don't want to watch, Senator Obama basically says that while Senator McCain keeps trying to say that he's different than President Bush, his policies on health care and the war and the like are the same, so it's like "putting lipstick on a pig". Maybe there was more before or after this, but in this clip he says absolutely nothing about Governor Palin.
In that context, I can't see how this is at all sexist. If you still think it is, what do you think about John McCain using the exact same phrase in the same context earlier this year?
First video, undated, but talking about John McCain's health care opinions compared to Hillary Clinton's plan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlN3JpWLF2w&feature=related
This video is dated May 2, 2008:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMHlIfOTS1c
Again, same context: Hillary Clinton's health care plan is like "putting lipstick on a pig."
Here's another example of Republican/Right selective memory, from The Daily Show (I promise, I do get my news from other sources, but Jon Stewart is just so darn funny I can't resist):
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card
So, it was okay for those who supported the Republican party to tell Hillary to put on her big girl pants and remind her that if she wants to play with the "big boys" she has to toughen up, but the second anyone mentions anything about Palin's gender Democrats are "playing the gender card"? That when "a woman wants to be President, she shouldn't complain based on gender"? Do these people not realize that we live in the age of the internet, and we can easily access these VIDEOTAPED statements?
Also of note: when McCain's Policy Advisor said that those who jumped to Hillary Clinton's aide and said the media was sexist aren't really helping her, they're hurting her by making gender an issue.
As an aside, I love the clip where Papa Bear (Bill O'Reilly) says that Palin's pregnant daughter is not our our business because their family can support her and then goes on to say that the responsibility for Jamie-Lynn Spears' pregnancy falls "squarely on the parents" who "have no control" over their daughter. Funny, I don't think the Spears are hurting for money and will be collecting welfare anytime soon, yet it's totally okay to judge her. Which is it?
First of all.. I don't like the question posed: "Are democrats sexist?" That is way too generalized for me. And I think an important thing in politics is to be completely unbiased and look at the facts instead of the party affiliation. No generalizations, no partys, just candidates.
I think the question is better stated as "Are Obama and Biden sexist?"
Answering that question. I would say no. I agree with Ben when he says that the statement by Biden was pretty foolish, he is not as prudent as Obama is. I truly believe that Biden's statement was in no way intended to be sexist. Just cruel.
Now as for Obama being a sexist, I completely disagree with that. He has a history of standing up for womans rights. It is one of his priorities. He is for equal pay and is pro-choice.
McCain...hmmm, a little different. He is not so much for equal rights.
I think it is kind of ridiculous that the media has made such a big deal out of this. The McCain campaign as well. As was said earlier, McCain said the exact same thing about Hillary Clinton months prior. He used the SAME EXACT PHRASE! It is just a bit hypocritical and unfair. But hey, that is McCain.
It is funny that this has got so much attention and that a comment said by McCain has received none. In 1992, McCain showed his true colors. One evening, John and his wife were together. There also happened to be 3 reporters present. McCain's wife playfully touched McCain's hair and said: “You’re getting a little thin up there.” McCain's face got a bit red and he responded: “At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c***.”
There you have it, John McCain, presidential nominee and women's rights activist/advocate, calling his own wife the "c" word. I edited because it is about the worst word in the English language, and McCain said that to his wife. Is that sexist?
Are democrats sexist? Because a couple of them just happened to use the same word that Palin did? Palin was referring to Hockey moms and Obama used it it a completely different way. He never called Palin a pig, he simply used it to make a point about a "rose being a rose". Whether he used that particular word (lipstick) on purpose or not, it really shouldn't matter. As far as dressing up the record with lipstick, oh well - perhaps that was in poor taste, but I don't see how you can decide that democrats are sexist based on that.
I agree that it's interesting that this little word "lipstick" has caused such a fuss.
To address the second and third question, I really don't think that they are attacking Palin. I do think that even the smallest "cheap shot" can hurt however, because if you have a strong campaign, there is no need to poke fun at things that are irrelevant. It just makes them look a little silly and makes us wonder if they are thinking about important issues or concentrating more on making the other party look bad.
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