There are two themes that Sen. Obama and Co. seem to be hitting when it comes to Gov. Palin.  One of them is the current “Lipstick Controversy”:

"You can put lipstick on a pig," [Sen. Obama] said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to Palin’s joke even if it’s not what Obama meant. "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."

Attack on Palin?

Now, do I think that this reference was intended to mock the of-the-cuff joke that Gov. Palin made during her convention speech?  I’m not so sure about that.  This is a very well known expression, and paired with the fish joke, it seems that if it was intended, they carefully put this next part in to dissuade criticism.

But that’s part of the problem with politics—we don’t ever know what a politician is truly implying.  With all kinds of lines being drafted with all kinds of subtext, you can never be sure when the used car salesman politician really is saying something he means.

5 Kids = Lots of Work

What I find more interesting than the whole “Lipstick Controversy” is this statement in the same article:

"Look, she’s new, she hasn’t been on the scene, she’s got five kids. And my hat goes off to anybody whose looking after five. I’ve got two and they tire Michelle and me out," he said.

Regardless of whether he meant it—and again, everything’s suspect—what I got when I read this line was “Man, 2 kids is really tough, 5—how’s she going to find time to be VP?”

Voicing the same concern we’ve been reading around the Christian blogs on the net—and which is going through the minds of a lot of people.  Again, it’s subtle—and it’s a good attack for the simple reason that it’s going through the minds of people as they try to digest what to think about Palin.

Kudos to Sen. Obama for saying, however, that he and his wife are involved in raising their daughters—which underscores not only that Gov. Palin and her husband raise their children, but that it takes both a father and mother working together—it’s not just a woman’s job.

So, what do you think?  Subtle?  Reading in?