The Sexism Card and Barack Obama

Barack Obama has had a weapon that no other candidate in history has had at their disposal, the race card. He's used it well and quite sparingly at first. His painting of Bill Clinton as racist was among the more enjoyable moments of the primary season. Watching Bubba twist in the wind for a supposedly racist sentiment was a moment to behold and signalled the day that the media dropped Clinton and went hard for Obama. The fact that Clinton was not being racist didn't matter as the MSM fell hard for the man with big ears and a lot of momentum. Of late, the race card has been dropped wth reckless abandon and seems to have lost the intial punch it once had.

Now we have a nice turning of the tables as Obama has been accused of using the sexist card and just as the use of the race ace was effective at first, this seems to be having a shocking effect as well.

Obama said this yesterday:

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said as the crowd cheered. "It's still a pig."

The McCain campaign floated the notion that Obama was saying the VP choice was a pig. He wasn't but this is politics at the highest level and every word has meaning. Ben Smith even acknowledges that the crowd took it as a reference to Palin.

Just as Bill Clinton had to waste time and energy defending himself, Obama now is on the defensive because of the very same tactic he himself used.

I don't think Obama is so stupid as to called Palin a pig but he sure didn't choose his words well now did he? Just as everything was code for "black" when opposing Obama (think "clean" and "uppity"), now everything is code for woman in a derogatory way.

The Obama campaign is trying to regain the upper hand and get back on offense but slip-ups like this are leaving them reeling without any chance of getting back on message.

This is such sweet irony that I can almost taste it.

Update: Some libs are feeling the heat while some are in denial. The campaign has been horrid of late yet the deluded ones say McCain is on the defensive. Maybe I'm just watching a different campaign unfold and the polls numbers showing a massive McCain surge are just made up in my head.

Update: The McCain campaign moved fast on this one releasing the video below. More thoughts here.