"What their campaign has done this morning," Obama said, "is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country. Obama criticized the media's handling of the McCain camp's allegation. Neither got the nearly attention the McCain camp received when it made an issue of the lipstick and the pig. In the past 24 hours, Obama has held substantive events in the battleground states of Ohio and Virginia to discuss education policy and a press conference to set out his thoughts about Iraq and Afghanistan. In the Washington Post/ABC News poll released this week, 48 percent of respondents said the candidates' positions on issues are their main concern, compared with 37 percent who said they place greater weight on personal qualities such as experience and leadership.Īmong issue voters, Obama is leading McCain 56 to 37 percent.Īmong so-called personal quality voters, McCain is ahead 56 to 39 percent. The McCain campaign has been saying that this year's campaign will be decided by the candidates' personalities and biographies, and less by their positions on the issues. "As far as I know," Swift said, when asked by a reporter how she could be so sure, "she's the only one of the presidential candidates or vice presidential candidates who wears lipstick."īy dawn, the McCain campaign had issued a video press release, quickly picked up by television, calling the remark a "smear." She called Obama's comments "disgusting" and contended that Obama had called Palin a pig. Within minutes, Republican operatives arranged for former Massachusetts governor Jane Swift to talk with reporters by conference call. Sarah Palin, who had likened herself to a pit bull with lipstick at last week's Republican National Convention in her speech accepting the vice presidential nomination. Surrogates said Obama was targeting Alaska Gov. The McCain campaign immediately saw an opening to attack. "We've had enough of the same old thing." It's still going to stink, after eight years. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. "That's just calling something that's the same thing something different," Obama continued. Listing a host of issues on which he said McCain has the same position as President Bush, Obama said, "That's not change." John McCain's claim to be an agent of change in Washington. Obama made the lipstick comment Tuesday night in Lebanon, Va., while dismissing Republican rival Sen.
Because then we go another year, or another four years or another eight years without addressing the issues that matter to you." "You know who ends up losing at the end of the day? It's not the Democratic candidate. We've got two wars going on, veterans coming home not being cared for - and this is what they want to talk about. We have an economy that is creating hardship for families all across America. "We have an education system that is not working for too many of our children and making us less competitive.
"We've got an energy crisis," Obama said at a campaign event where he had planned to focus entirely on education policy. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and Swift Boat politics. Barack Obama branded the McCain campaign's assault on his "lipstick on a pig" comments as a "phony and foolish" diversion that diminishes political debate and hurts American voters.
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