LEBANON, Virginia (AFP) — Democrat Barack Obama late Tuesday launched his most scathing attack yet on his Republican White House rivals' reformist credentials, likening their approach to putting "lipstick on a pig."
"We've been talking about change when we were up in the polls and when we were down in the polls," Obama told a rally here as surveys suggested John McCain and Sarah Palin have overhauled his lead for the November 4 election.
"The other side, suddenly, they're saying 'we're for change too.' Now think about it, these are the same folks that have been in charge for the last eight years," the Illinois senator said to a crowd of 2,400 people.
"You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough," he exclaimed to a standing ovation.
"Boy, we've really screwed things up, but it could get worse. That's their argument. What John McCain's offering is the same old tired slogans that (President) George Bush offered."
Alaska Governor Palin joked at the Republican convention last week, in accepting the vice presidential nomination, that the only difference between a hockey mom like herself and a pitbull was "lipstick."
But Obama stressed he was not getting personal as he lashed out at media coverage of Palin's unmarried 17-year-old daughter falling pregnant, and of the socially conservative governor's evangelical faith.
"My hat goes off to anybody who's looking after five (children)," he said, adding: "Let me be very clear about this. I have said already that people's families are off limits.
"How qualified we are to run for office isn't determined by what our children do."
Obama, who has been dogged by a smear campaign portraying him as a secret Muslim, said: "I am a Christian. I believe deeply in my faith. So the fact that Governor Palin is deeply religious, that's a good thing.
"For people to start poking around and try to paint that as if it's strange or wrong, that's offensive," he said.
"I don't want people to question my faith and I certainly am not going to question somebody else's."
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
