A pig in a poke?

A reprint of the image and caption from our August 30, 2008 post "All Palin all the time and loving it": We're savoring the joy of bloggers, politicians and media types who think McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as running mate is the best thing since sliced sourdough bread, not to mention the bewilderment of their counterparts on the other side of the aisle, who, like the proverbial deer — moose? —  in the headlights, obviously didn't see it coming down the road to the White House.  Above, "This moose made it across safely, though several hundred other moose end up in collisions with vehicles on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, causing injuries, deaths and property damage." (AP Photo/The Peninsula Clarion, M. Scott Moon)

In light of breaking events, we are republishing portions of two previous posts, one current (above) and the other four years old (scroll down):

Last evening we noticed a sudden spurt in our Site Meter stats and were delighted to learn that the title of one of our 2004 presidential election posts — "You can put lipstick on a pig" — was currently the hottest search term in town (screen shot above). When Google searchers typed in "you can put lipstick on a pig," up popped our own four-year-old post of the same title, a commentary on Dick Cheney as pit bull without lipstick during the 2004 presidential campaign. We headed over to that venerable post and added an update:

Welcome, Googlers and Christian Science Monitor thevoteblog readers! It's September of 2008, a whole presidential-election season later than when we first published this post, but some things never change. For all Palin all the time, check out our category "Sarah get your gun." And for the record, in light of the currrent pig-in-a-poke* brouhaha, we agree with Jennifer Rubin at Pajamas Media that "the Democrats are panickers. As such, one wonders if they are fit for high office." Meanwhile Scott Ott at Scrappleface reports that "After Obama Jab, Pig Lipstick Sales Surge."

*Pig in a poke: An object offered in a manner that conceals its true value, especially its lack of value.

Original post of November 2, 2004:

"As we say in Wyoming, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," quipped Vice President Dick Cheney in a stump speech yesterday, with reference to John Kerry's claims he would be a credible war president. It's part of the VP's daily refresher course in the presidential wannabe's all-talk-no-action lack of decisiveness [the Girlie-Man Syndrome]. Kerry makes it all too easy, as the Guardian reports on an earlier speech:

Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that Sen. John Kerry's first response to Osama bin Laden's new videotape was to take a poll to find out what he should say about it. 

"It's as though he doesn't know what he believes until he has to go and check the polls, his finger in the air, to see which way the wind is blowing and then he'll make a decision . . . George Bush doesn't need a poll to know what he believes, especially about Osama bin Laden."

[Kerry spokesman Joe "Cheating"] Lockhart said Cheney was referring to a Democracy Corps poll and inaccurately linked it to the Kerry campaign's private polling. Democracy Corps [founded in 1999 by Kerry stalwarts James Carville, Stanley Greenberg, and Bob Shrum] is a Democratic organization and not part of the Kerry campaign, though its management has worked closely with Kerry's team [We guess it depends upon what your definition of "linked" is].

Its most recent poll asked voters about the bin Laden tape and found that more people said it made them feel like Bush had taken his "eye off the ball'' in the war on terror than thought it underscored the importance of the president's approach.

We can't help but wonder how those Democracy Corps pollsters phrased the question to get a majority of respondents to say the Osama tape made Bush look bad [speaking of looking bad, didn't you think Osama looked like death warmed over?]. Hmmmm.  Maybe something like "Since the President swore to get Osama "dead or alive" and then abandoned the war on terror to go after Saddam, does the bin Laden tape make you feel like Bush has taken his eye off the ball"? With their party's customary contempt for the intelligence of their fellow citizens — the little people who don't know what's best for themelves — democratic pollsters might well catch everyday folk off guard with their false premise that democratizing Iraq is not central to the war on terror.

Comments

[Gayle Miller]

And of course all of this was fueled by Obama using that phrase in a speech yesterday - which most took to be a veiled (or not so veiled) reference to Gov. Sarah Palin. In any event, while the leftwingcaptive news media isn't making all that much of it, Fox News is all over it this morning. The consensus is that however he meant it, it was another gaffe from the Gaffemeister Himself, the junior Senator from Illinois.

[hnav]

"democratic pollsters might well catch everyday folk off guard with their false premise that democratizing Iraq is not central to the war on terror."

They seem stuck on this vapid approach, having invested so much on the defeat of the Free World in the Midst of the Arab Region, for personal political gain.

Even when Hillary voted for the authorization of the use of force in Iraq, she was too pathetic to be honest about her vote.

Meanwhile, GW Bush led with such admirable resolve, fighting rightly for the best in the World.

It is always refreshing to look back in time, and see such impressive posts from the past.

Especially when sound conviction proves to be as right as it was then as it is today.

[Gayle Miller]

I think at this juncture it's more important, certainly more useful, to concentrate on what His Nibs from Illinois is saying on topics such as GWOT, healthcare, reproductive matters - and I am tired of being fobbed off by all his high flown rhetoric. If you cannot tell me in terms certain what you really intend to do, then why in the name of all that is sensible should I vote for you?

(Well, actually, I never intended to vote for the flimflam man - but you get my point I'm sure.)