Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Pigs, Plagiarism, and Pollsters

The media and the internet are in an uproar over Barack Obama's "lipstick on a pig" statement yesterday:



The Right says it's a slam on Sarah Palin, after her Hockey Mom joke mentioned lipstick (about 3:30 into this video):



(HT: Flopping Aces, via Sparks from the Anvil for both videos)

The Left says, no, Obama was talking about McCain's policies. I kinda think they're both right. It's a campaign, for Pete's sake! Both sides are going to slam the other, and the slammee will cry, "Foul!" and the slammers will say, "We didn't mean it that way," ad novemberum.

But there's an interesting side note, over at Confederate Yankee, that Obama may have plagiarized an editorial cartoon in his remarks right before "lipstick on a pig."

Obama has already been accused of stealing lines from Deval Patrick, Mario Coumo, and Cesar Chavez, and chose a Vice Presidential candidate with his own history of oratory theft. If Barack Obama once again appropriated someone else's words, he is going to have some trouble finding credible people to explain it away this time.

Plagiarism is bad, but I'm willing to cut him some slack on this one, because it could possibly be a serious case of Group Think in the Left-wing bubble. Of course, that doesn't excuse Biden's past plagiarism and doesn't speak well of Obama's judgment in choosing a serial plagiarist to be his running mate.

But the real point in the election is not the slams and the offended howls. It's the issues. And that was brought home to me last night by a phone call I got.

A man called me and said he was polling for some non-partisan group that I didn't think to write down. He focused on the state (California) and spent about 15 minutes asking me various questions. Did I think Arnold was doing a good job as Governor? No. Did I think the legislature was doing a good job? WAY No. What did I think was the most important issue for the state? Getting more energy, like allowing drilling and building more nuclear power plants. (He had to go find that one to mark it off for me.)

Then the talk turned to the national stage.

Did I approve or disapprove of the job the following people are doing (he didn't allow me to select "mildly approve" or "strongly approve," just "approve"):

President Bush? Approve (mildly).
Congress? Disapprove.
Nancy Pelosi? Disapprove.
Dianne Feinstein? Disapprove.
Barbara Boxer? Disapprove (strongly).
My Representative (Darrell Issa)? Approve.

Who did I think will do a better job of handling these issues, McCain or Obama:

The economy? McCain.
The War in Iraq (I can't remember the exact words he used for this)? McCain.
Education? McCain.
Health care? McCain.
Immigration? Umm... McCain is slightly less bad than Obama, so I pick McCain.
Abortion? McCain.
Foreign policy? McCain.

There were more issues than I can remember right now, and for each one my answer was, "McCain." At the end, the pollster asked if I'd be willing to be interviewed by a reporter about my answers. I gulped and said yes. We'll see if anything happens...

When it comes down to it--pigs with lips and hens with teeth aside--McCain may not be great for our country, but he's far, far better than Obama would be, and that's the only question that needs answering.

4 comments:

Lydia said...

Good post. Except Biden is not a "serial plagiarist." He made a huge mistake (that he has owned for the last 20 years) in 1988 and learned from it. As an alcoholic with nearly 23 years of sobriety I well understand mistakes made, mistakes admitted, mistakes forgiven, mistakes not repeated. I was furious with Biden in 1988 for doing that because he was my choice for the nominee way back then, was my choice again this primary, and I think Obama made a brilliant decision in choosing him as a running mate.

(The cat and printer video is choice!)

SkyePuppy said...

Lydia,

I've understood Biden's transgressions to be plural. Here is an article listing at least two cases and referencing more potential cases.

But that wasn't the more important point, which, as you've said before, is the issues. I think we just might disagree a bit on those...

(Yes, I love the cat video too.)

janice said...

I think "serial plagiarist" captures the real Biden. Over the next few weeks we'll see him do it again.

As far as the issues go, BHO/Biden in the WH will be a loser all the way around.

Like I commented over at Chris' blog, this is not my perfect repub ticket. But the alternative is much, much worse.

Jacob said...

The Left says, no, Obama was talking about McCain's policies. I kinda think they're both right. It's a campaign, for Pete's sake! Both sides are going to slam the other, and the slammee will cry, "Foul!" and the slammers will say, "We didn't mean it that way," ad novemberum.

About the most accurate thing I've read in any of these blogs, Skye. I totally agree.

"Ad novemberum"? Did you come up with that?

Meanwhile, I just overheard a woman at work talking about Sarah Palin: She's entertaining, but if they give her the button we're all fucked.

Word.