Reflecting on the "Lipstick on a Pig" Incident

By: SW

In the last two days everyone is talking about the "Lipstick on a Pig" comment by Obama. In the process his image and poll number continue to sink. I do not care if Obama really intended to slander Sarah Palin. But I am concerned about the way he handled this crisis. First of all, he has no business attacking the VP candidate of the other party -- he should have focused on McCain. Having made the blunder, he could have put a quick stop to it early on by issuing an apology, saying that it is unfortunate that his comment was misunderstood and he is sorry for any hard feelings this may have caused. It would have put a stop to the whole thing. Yet he chose to deny and defend it. That just makes people (particularly women who sympathsize with the way Palin has been treated) angrier. Tonight Obama went on the Letterman show and started getting into another bizzare explanation of what lipstick means (he said Palin is the lipstick, not the pig). If Obama handles a relatively small crisis like this in such a lousy manner, how is he going to handle an international crisis, or some national calamity like 911? In my mind this incident shows his lack of good judgment.