Political pigs
Make no mistake about it: The most popular political phrases nowadays concern lipstick and animals ever since Gov. Sarah Palin made the now infamous joke — “What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick” — at the Republican National Convention. (Barack Obama later quipped, “You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig.”).
But, St. Paul wasn’t the first time lipstick and politics intersected. Lest we forget, former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke named her 2006 book, “Lipstick on a Pig: Winning In the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game.” We decided to catch up with Clarke to get her take on how Lipstick Labels are being tossed around lately.
“I had much better intentions with the use of the term,” Clarke said with a laugh. “It basically means that you can’t make something appear better than it is. Now, Sarah Palin owns any phrase with the word ‘lipstick’ in it, fairly or not.
“The Obama campaign wasn’t happy that the McCain campaign was somewhat successfully stealing the change mantle,” said the loyal Republican. “It was a tactical mistake on the Obama’s campaign part to use that ‘lipstick on a pig’ line.”
Still, when asked about “lipstick”‘s resurgence in modern political dialogue, Clarke’s not sure it’s a net gain for civilized conversation. “I know why it happened and how it happened, but I wish it hadn’t happened. Politicians get themselves in trouble by being too clever by half.”
