antimetabole

Check out this article on Slate.com: “The Hottest Rhetorical Device of Campaign ‘08.”

And because it involves an issue of language-here, a common colloquialism-and because it led to interesting discussion today, also check out Obama’s response to the lipstick on a pig “controversy.”  For fun, here are some other politicians using the phrase, as reported by CBS news:

• “I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” – John McCain, in reference to Hillary Clinton’s health care plan, last year.
• “George Bush has given a mission to General Petraeus, and he has done his best to try to figure out how to put lipstick on a pig.” – Barack Obama, last year.
• “Or as we say out in our home state of Wyoming, you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” – Dick Cheney, 2004.
• “It’s all about withdrawal or not withdrawal, okay? I mean that’s what it’s all about. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” – John McCain, last year.
• “You can put lipstick and earrings on a hog and call it Monique, but it’s still a pig.” – Texas Gov. Ann Richards.
• “John Kerry tries to put a bunch of fancy, fancy talk…but there is nothing you can do to really — to really obscure that record. You can try, though. And in Wyoming, we’ve got a saying for what it is when you keep trying to make something that’s not so good look good, we call it putting lipstick on a pig.” – Lynne Cheney, 2004.
• “It gets down to whether you support what’s being done in this new strategy or you don’t. You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig in my view.” – John McCain, last year.

I invite your responses to this post, if you’d like to continue the discussion online.

~ by cehret on 10 September 2008.