Was McCain the stinky old fish?

nationalreview ^ | Victor Davis Hanson

[flyfree]

In all the furor over the Obama "pig" quote, commentators forgot to examine his entire attack:

"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 gonna stink."

When read in the entire context you can see what he seems to mean with his dual animate male/female references and why he probably evoked two metaphors: most would think that Obama is talking about both on the ticket and his anger how each has expropriated his change motif.

So in that sense he appears both to insult the 72-year old McCain as the "old fish" that is still going to "stink", and to refer to Palin, who had famously evoked the metaphor of lipstick in a nationally televised address, as still the pig despite the lipstick.

The fact that he used two metaphors to attack the two, and used expressions referring both to age and Palin's recent use of "lipstick" don't seem to be accidents and that's why the cooing crowd got the old fish=McCain;lipsticked pig=Palin immediately.

I'll leave it to others to deconstruct the historical use of pig as a sexist term in the recent climate of generic attacks on Sarah Palin.

PS. The VP nominee was just announced and already Biden has called her "good looking" and now “a step back for women”; most know what he intended, but like most Bidenisms they come out wrongly and confirm a popular perception that he suffers from logorhhea and that there is a different standard of reference applied to Palin due to her sex.

Someone in the campaign has got to manage the ex tempore carelessness.

[stockstrader]

Stinky Fish is a reference to female genitals. Women who stick because of ovulations.

But it was so very NUANCED!!! /s

[Rutles4Ever]

EXACTLY! BINGO!

Make it a weapon against them. It’s too easy to be outraged. The crafty jabs of Pailin can sting for a lifetime.

[padre35]

Good point and what McCain said earlier:

“McCain criticized Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health care proposals that require too much government regulation. While he said he had not studied Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s health-care plan, he said it was “eerily reminiscent” of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the early 1990s.

“I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” he said of her proposal.”

Was clearly talking of the proposal, Obama is pretty blatantly speaking of McCain and Palin and their Reforms...

Obama should not sleaze out of this one, we should not let him.

[Faith]

I interpreted it as you did.

Sorry. I meant to say that I interpreted the comment as the author did.

[1066AD]

I thought the fish remark was a sort of code (referring to Palin’s husband) to let the audience know he knew they knew what the pig remark was aimed at.

Perhaps I credit him/them with too much subtlety !

[popdonnelly]

Obama’s cult loonies no doubt got it.

[eeriegeno]

Obama is a Muslim....naanananananana

No thit, is he? Don't be telling me that he sports a mid name of Hussien!!!!!

[winner3000]

Obama is back to kindergarten. Sarah’s lipstick joke was not thrown toward Obama. I hope we don’t get sucked into responding in kind. Sarah’s and Rudy’s criticisms drew blood because they were true and because they were substantive in nature. Getting sucked into name calling would be counter-productive as we have such advantages on the issues!

Even OPEC now wants to reduce the price of oil. They got scared about McCain’s and Palin’s agenda of increasing our oil independence, and OPEC wants to reduce the price to a level that prevents some of the business cases from making sense. OPEC has played that game for years. We need a national will to get ourselves weaned from these jerks once and for all.

[EnquiringMind]

The fact that he said “OLD fish” gave me the immediate impression that the twerp was referring to McCain.

[stockstrader]

I’m almost more offended at the thought of insulting a war hero as a stinky old fish.

That ugly comment,,,like the ugly "pig" comment,,,,

is just overflowing with NUANCE!!!

Don't the liberals FLAUNT Hussein's ability to make NUANCED comments?

[Lexinom]

These are the vain stammerings of a desperate man.

Obama is getting an important life lesson from the campaign about humility. I pray it does him some good.

[mass55th]

"I consider her to be the lipstick and him the pig."

Watch it buster!!

[DTogo]

“That is not change, come on,” Obama continued. “I mean, words mean something. You can’t just make stuff up."

[gusopol3]

considering the political hay BO’s campaign made out of Toon’s “fairy tale” comment, they are whistling into the wind if they don’t expect to have this hung around their necks. McCain needs to pick it up and club him with the fish comment, of course with good humor, although the fish may be the barracuda.

[Brilliant]

Name calling tends to backfire.

[cripplecreek]

I was a big fan of Pigs in Space.

[stickandrudder]

I took the “Fish” slam as a muslin insult to one of the symbols of Christians

[igoramus08]

The crowd "got it". It's too bad that the media isn't playing the entire clip. Even Hannity didn't do it. But when the entire line is played it's crystal clear that it's a jab at Palin and McCain.

There is no doubt when the "old fish" line is included. He is classlessly calling Palin a pig, and McCain a stinky old fish.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

The twin insults are so obvious that you can just see Obama's speech writing team sitting around in a conference room somewhere trying to come up with zingers that Obama could hurl at McCain and Palin.

They might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but they are backfiring mightily tonight.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I have no idea if that is what he meant, but I know that if it was a Republican, by tomorrow there would be a “historical” Wikipedia page detailing the usage of “Stinky Fish”..

I know, because that’s how Macaca became a racist word.