I can’t understand the rationale for Obama to clarify his “lipstick on a pig” remark first thing this morning at the top of his speech. It was a good line. It riffed off of Palin’s lipstick/pitbull line in her acceptance speech. It was pointed, sure. But so what?
Yes, Obama sort of laughed it off and dismissed the criticism with some elan. He wasn’t overly defensive about it, but he was still playing defense. His whole orientation is wrong. Today, you come up with a good new line. You play off of the previous day’s good line. You keep moving the ball forward.
The McCain camp is running an ad linking Obama to sex and children — and Obama is taking valuable time at the beginning of his speech to explain how he wasn’t really indirectly calling Sarah Palin a pig?
As Begala says: Attack! Attack! Attack!