If McCain's 'The Pig': Did Letterman Help Obama?

I appreciate Barack Obama's somewhat lighthearted attempt to exegete his now infamous joke as he sat last night with David Letterman. In fact, I love it when anyone whittles a statement down to its components, to its syntactical and grammatical pith. And that is what Barack Obama did. I just wonder if he did himself any favors by being so logical.

Obama: “[...] keep in mind that, technically, had I meant it that way [as an attack on a person], she [Sarah Palin] would have been the lipstick, you see?” (audience, Dave laugh) “But now we’re…”

Letterman: “I don’t know, you’re way ahead of me.” (audience laughs)

Obama: “Yeah, the failed policies of John McCain would be the pig.”

Letterman: “Now, do you feel like for the last week and a half, last two weeks, that the campaign - ”(audience laughs, Obama laughs)

Obama: “Now, I mean, you know, just following the logic of this illogical situation.”

I would think, then, that if either Sen. McCain or his failed policies are the pig, and Gov. Palin is the lipstick that apparently dresses up and disguises that pig, then we have gotten more information than we may have wanted. Clearly Sen. Obama has spent some time reflecting on his gaffe. He's even gotten a bit cheeky about it: If his critics had only been quite astute enough to stick to the literal text, they would not have automatically assumed that Gov. Palin is porcine. A strict reading of the text would actually show that she is only porcine lipstick.

Not really helpful, Sen. Obama, even if offered as a joke, a reductio ad absurdum joke. You are giving too much away here; you prove you are thinking about this too much. You are coming across as "too clever by half" (someone needs to explain that idiom to me sometime). Lord knows, I love cleverness, but not in instances such as this. Issue a sincere "Oops!" and move on ... at least the next time.

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