Did Obama Steal his ‘Lip Stick on a Pig’ Speech from a Political Cartoon?

September 10, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

The folks at FreeRepublic have found an interesting… uh, shall we say coincidence… concerning Barack Obama’s widely panned September 9 comments made at a rally in Virginia where he seemed to be saying that Governor Palin was a “pig” by referencing the “lipstick” quote from her acceptance speech at the GOP convention. It is looking like Obama’s comments were not off the cuff, but scripted. And, not only were they scripted, but they were stolen without attribution from a Washington Post political cartoon by Tom Toles from September 5.

Obama tried to quip that “you can put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig” when attacking the McCain/Palin record. But the entire segment, including the previous comments leading up to the insensitive “pig” line, are almost word for word from the Tom Toles cartoon form the 5th.

Transcript:

John McCain says he’s about change too. Exce- and and so I guess his whole angle is - watch out, George Bush - except for economic policy, healthcare policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy, and Karl-Rove-style politics, we’re really gonna shake things up in Washington.

That’s not change.

That’s that’s just callin’ sumpin’ the same thing somethin’ different.

But you know, you can’t, you know, you you can put, ah, lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.

And now for the cartoon…

You can see for yourself that the entire segment before his “pig” quip matches the Toles cartoon exactly.

So, now we have a few points to ponder. Will the Obama campaign admit that this whole bit was lifted from Tom Toles? And are we to understand that the Obama campaign is now being programmed by cartoons?

See ya in the funny papers, Barack.

**Update**

Looks like FOXNews.com picked my story up.

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston