Lipstick on a Pig and the Election Lies

There is a famous phrase in America called “Pork Barrel Politics”, meaning forcing the government to spend money in your constituency in a way that specific people will benefit from it. Many politicians force the government to spend money in their appointed constituencies to please their voters and keep them on their feet for the next round of elections. When Sarah Palin claimed that she had been against these kinds of expenses and had prevented them, the media stated checking her records and revealing that this was not true. Then Barack Obama, intentionally or unintentionally, making a timely banter, tempted McCain.

The story began two weeks ago when Sarah Palin was attempting to introduce herself, saying that she is a “Hockey mom” suggesting that the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick! Obama responded to this joke in one of his speeches with an idiom in which both the “lipstick” and “pig” words were used, suggesting that applying lipstick to a pig’s lips does not change the pig. The “lipstick on a pig” phrase is used when someone claims to have changed, but is actually the same ugly person s/he used to be, as in trying to put lipstick on a pig to make him look good. McCain’s campaign asked Obama for an apology. Obama said in response that he did not intend the joke to be about Sarah Palin, asking what made them think so, when he used the word “pig”.

In a famous television show, the audience of which consists of mainly women, Senator McCain was questioned and criticized as to why he claims that Obama meant any offense to Palin. One of the hosts noted that McCain himself had used the exact same phrase before. Recently, focusing on this issue, McCain’s campaign has tried to picture Obama as anti-woman and in this way change feelings in favor of Sarah Palin. But the results of checks through her records, published by major newspapers such as New York Times and Washington Post showed that McCain took a great risk in choosing her and his effort to make Obama look anti-woman will not succeed.

In its latest review, the New York Times revealed that Palin used to employ friends and family and fire others in Alaska. For example she employed one of her old school-mates, a former real estate agent, for a manager position in the State Division of Agriculture, someone whose only shared interest with agriculture and an office with a 2 million dollar budget is her love for cows. She also involved her husband in budget directing, vetoing many legislate projects, at a time when he was not qualified to have a say in budget issues. The Washington Post also pointed out Sarah Palin’s pressure on the library director of the Wasilla City Public Library to remove certain books while mentioning its management problems and negative effect on the small city, with a population of 5500 people, governed by her.

Sensitivity to bloggers’ criticisms made one of Sarah Palin’s assistants call the blogger who was following the governor’s activities and firmly ask him to close his weblog and stop writing. Palin practically considers critics as enemies. The media is revealing Palin’s record with an intense and somehow exaggerated precision, showing what potential she may have and how she can affect Washington.

The battle between the Democrats and the Republicans in critical states such as Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Florida and Mysore, has heated up these days and the opponent’s hot slogans against each other is a sign of the issue’s importance. The media is also eyeing these slogans. In addition to the media, there are some independent groups keeping an eye on both parties and revealing their lies to their readers.

The Factcheck website, which specifically analyzes the candidates’ ideas and their slogans, believes that McCain has made more of an effort to fool the voters than his opponent, while McCain claims honesty and has always called himself very sincere. But this does not imply Obama’s innocence since Obama has changed McCain’s word in his own favor many times and has also slanted McCain’s record in the education field in Senate. What the Republicans are worried about is that revealing the untruthful propaganda will have a negative effect on the election for the 71 year old, self-acclaimed honest candidate.

As for now, these untruthful slogans and propaganda has caught Sarah Palin red-handed, especially on the issue of taking money from the government for projects which benefit specific people. So the “lipstick on a pig” phrase does somehow apply to someone who has been pioneer in using the budget from the pig pot.