Grading PolitiFact: PolitiFact applies lipstick to a pig (Updated)

The "lipstick on a pig" thing has received ample print treatment, but with PolitiFact weighing in you get this post simply as a counterbalance.

While I think it's inarguable that Barack Obama's primary intent was to disparage McCain for sporting the change/reform mantle, PolitiFact's Angie Drobnic Holan takes it a step further than that and ends up on thin ice.

The background is on the mark:

“I love those hockey moms. You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.”

The line drew cheerful applause and has echoed ever since, which seems to explain how Sen. Barack Obama found himself in the middle of an uproar when he uttered a time-worn phrase to denigrate Sen. John McCain’s proclaimed agenda for “change” in Washington.

This is a key point. Palin's pit bull/lipstick remark "has echoed ever since" and cannot be unknown to Democrats including Barack Obama.

"John McCain says he's about change, too," Obama said. "And so I guess his whole angle is, 'Watch out, George Bush! Except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy, and Karl Rove-style politics, we're really going to shake things up in Washington.'"

"That's not change," Obama said. "That's just calling something the same thing something different. But you know, you can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change, it’s still going to stink after eight years. We’ve had enough of the same old thing."

Gasp! He just said lipstick! Did he just call Sarah Palin a pig??!!!

That’s the charge.

Yes, that's the charge. It is a plausible charge on its face given that Palin's line about lipstick "has resonated ever since," and it seems that the facetious "Gasp!" is intended to mock as reactionary those who make the connection.

But throughout the PolitiFact analysis, the reaction of Obama's audience is completely overlooked. Watch the video.



Obama delivers a somewhat unusual version of the "lipstick on a pig" metaphor. He states "You can put lipstick on a pig" and then pauses. The audience keys in to his statement and starts to react, then Obama finishes the line.

The audience reaction, judging from the sound and appearance, took cues from the fact that Palin's line about lipstick and pit bulls "has resonated ever since." Writer/researcher Angie Drobnic Holan tunes out that resonation for purposes of her analysis.

The ad has two big problems, as does the complaint of former Gov. Swift. First, in the full text of the remarks it’s clear that Obama isn’t talking about Sarah Palin. He’s talking about McCain’s argument that he represents change.

Good-bye "has resonated ever since."

It's fair to grant that Obama clearly had policy in mind as the primary object of his attack. It is naive, however, to think that Obama could not have had Palin in mind as a secondary target of the remark, given "has resonated ever since." We would have to believe that Obama would not have any inkling that using the "lipstick on a pig" line would not recall Palin's line from her RNC speech. Is Barack Obama a stupid man?

Second, “putting lipstick on a pig” is a popular put-down, especially among politicians. It generally means taking a bad or unattractive idea and trying to dress it up.

That's certainly true, but it does nothing to establish that Obama did not deliberately refer to Palin as a subtext. It serves as a red herring in terms of this issue. And red herrings constitute much of the remainder of her analysis.

We weren’t able to pin down the origins of this folksy expression, but we found tons of instances of people using it.

Save it. It's not relevant where nobody made a comment regarding lipstick that "resonated ever since." Regardless, Drobnic Holan regales us with several irrelevant examples.

After that she makes the Grand Pronouncement on behalf of PolitiFact:

It is simply impossible to view the complete remarks by Obama and conclude that he’s making a veiled and unsavory reference to Palin.

I suggest that dozens in Obama's audience would aver otherwise if compelled to testify under oath.

Her name never is used in the preceding sentence.

No need. "(R)esonated ever since." Remember?

We think it’s very clear that Obama was saying McCain’s effort to call himself the “candidate of change” is like putting lipstick on a pig, trying to dress up a bad idea to look better. Agree or disagree with Obama’s point, but his remark wasn’t the smear that McCain’s people have tried to make it.

The judgment appears to appeal to a false dilemma. If Obama is referring to McCain's policies then he can't be referring also to Palin. Angie Drobnic Holan provides nothing other than that implied fallacy in favor of the conclusion.

Chalk up another grand flub for the folks at PolitiFact.

***

As for my own judgment of Obama's intent, I now lean toward the view that Obama did intend for his audience to pick up on a reference to Palin. The evidence is simple: Palin's pit-bull line "has resonated ever since." Obama is taking a beating in the polls in the wake of Palinmania. Obama made an unusual pause in his delivery of a oft-used line. Obama's audience appeared to pick up on the line as a reference to Palin. Taking those things together, it is difficult to see how anyone could argue that Obama could not have been referring to Palin.

There will never be any definitive proof that Obama intended to catch Palin with the blast, however, unless he just comes out and admits it.


Update:

Since YouTube removed the originally embedded video, I've added a different embed.



It's also worth adding that Obama's speech doesn't just talk about "lipstick on a pig." It also trots out the fish wrapped in newspaper line. But not just any fish. Obama refers to an "old" fish that will stink after eight years. Now ask yourself: Is it important to say that the fish is old if we're looking at whether it will stink in eight years? The first was very probably an intentional veiled reference to Sarach Palin. The second was very probably an intentional veiled reference to John McCain.