Politics 2008

From The Associated Press

Obama: McCain can’t put lipstick on a pig

LEBANON, Va.—What’s the difference between the presidential campaign before and after the national political conventions? Lipstick.

The colorful cosmetic has become a political buzzword, thanks to Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s joke in her acceptance speech that lipstick is the only thing that separates a hockey mom like her from a pit bull.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama told an audience Tuesday that GOP presidential nominee John McCain says he’ll change Washington, but he’s just like President Bush.

“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to Palin’s joke. “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.”‘

McCain’s campaign immediately organized a telephone conference call in response and called on Obama to apologize for calling Palin a pig. Obama’s campaign said he wasn’t referring to Palin; he had been talking about McCain immediately before the lipstick comment. services.

McCain has used the lipstick phrase, too.

Last year while criticizing health proposals from the Democratic presidential candidates, he said Hillary Rodham Clinton’s resembled the failed plan she offered as first lady during the 1990s. “I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” McCain of her proposal.

Franken wins in Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Comedian Al Franken grabbed the Democratic nomination Tuesday for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, setting up a showdown with Republican Sen. Norm Coleman that had been years in the making.

Franken, who gained fame as a "Saturday Night Live" cast member, easily beat six other candidates chasing the Democratic nod. Coleman trounced his only opponent, an expatriate living in Italy.

They'll share the ballot with Dean Barkley of the Independence Party, which has factored into the outcome of some statewide races in recent elections. Barkley was briefly in the Senate when he was appointed by then-Gov. Jesse Ventura in 2002 to complete the late Paul Wellstone's term.