Obama comments 'offensive and disgraceful'

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s comments that “you can put lipstick on a pig” were “offensive and disgraceful”, his rival John McCain’s campaign said today.

Mr Obama’s reference to an earlier joke by Mr McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin came as he intensified his criticism of the Republican ticket, challenged the notion they offered change and said a McCain presidency would be like four more years of President George Bush.

Mrs Palin compared herself with a “pit bull in lipstick” during her high-profile acceptance speech at her party’s national convention last week.

“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from an audience in Virginia yesterday.

“It’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still going to stink after eight years.”

In a new attack advert called “Lipstick” today, the McCain-Palin campaign said Mr Obama was only “ready to smear”, not lead.

A McCain campaign spokesman called Mr Obama’s comments “offensive and disgraceful”.

Jane Swift, chairwoman of the newly-formed Palin Truth Squad, said: “It’s clear to me – as I’m sure it will be to fair-minded Republicans, Democrats and independents across the country – that Senator Obama owes Governor Palin an apology.”

Mr Obama’s campaign said he was not referring to Mrs Palin and said the Republican camp was engaging in a “pathetic attempt to play the gender card”.

The spokesman also noted that Mr McCain once used the same phrase to describe Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plan.

Mr Obama has taken a more aggressive tack in recent days as he scrambled to counter defections by women voters following his rival’s surprise choice of Mrs Palin, the youngest and first female governor of Alaska, as his vice presidential nominee.

An ABC News-Washington Post survey found that white women have moved from backing Mr Obama by eight points to supporting Mr McCain by 12 points.

Overall, the poll showed Mr Obama was still ahead of Mr McCain by a statistically insignificant one percentage point, 47 to 46.

But the daily Gallup Poll tracking survey showed Mr McCain jumping to a five-point margin, 49 to 44, signalling a major shift in voter sentiment, at least for the time.

Mr Obama insisted he was not particularly concerned.

“I just think that the notion that people are swinging back and forth in the span of a few weeks or a few days, this generally isn’t borne out,” he said.