Cowtown Chronicles

You might have heard all of the gnashing of teeth by the McCain-Palin campaign over Obama’s use of a tired old metaphor.

Disregarding for a second that Republicans are the ones who YEARS ago decried the modern taste for “political correctness” and all of the immediate cries of offense that poorly chosen words would garner, I posit this question:

Which is more offensive?

Saying that the McCain-Palin campaign is more of the same and that you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig (or a pitbull?), and it’s still a pig.

OR

Ridiculing someone for making a deliberate choice to take a low-paying, extremely difficult job as a community organizer instead of the much more lucrative fast track that Obama could have taken to Federal Court clerkship or a six-figure salary at a BigLaw firm? (I have no illusions that Obama made his choice for purely altruistic reasons, just like McCain hasn’t stayed in public office for 30 years because he’s so in love with his country.)

Is using a tired old homily of the “lipstick on a pig” sort automatically sexist because the opposing campaign happens to have a woman on the ticket? Isn’t it just as sexist to ASSUME that she’d choose to wear lipstick and would automatically self-identify with a crack made in regards to lipstick?