I swear, SNL is still around purely for the sake of election years

It ain't like the conservative elites get it either

So, ever since this morning I have been getting battered with news of Republican "outrage" over Senator Obama's comment that Senator McCain's policies were "putting lipstick on a pig."

"Smear!" they shout.

"He's a sexist!" they shout.

"He's talking about Governor Palin!" they shout.

Excuse my French, but that is a steaming pile of horse excrement.

Anyone who has regular contact with rural folks or blue collar folks or both knows that the colloquialism "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" has been used for decades - perhaps longer - to denote that someone is trying to sell you a bill of goods.

And I can say that from experience.

One of the realities of criminal defense is that most of your clients are on the lower end of the economic scale, and if you want to be good at your job, you need to be capable of speaking the language.

Maybe if the media elites on both sides of the aisle started spending more time with regular people instead of just talking about them and pretending to protect their interests we would be able to avoid this sort of nonsense.

Do I really have to hug you?

Today, the media - both mainstream and alternative - simply could not talk about Governor Sarah Palin enough, and with all of that I haven't seen or heard a soul mention the thing that I found most striking . . . the body language between Senator McCain and Governor Palin when he came out after her speech.

Back when I was in high school, one of the local drama teachers used to kvetch at his students any time their characters had to hug as part of a performance. His ire was roused by the fact that the insincerity of the hug was blatantly obvious. A-frame hugs. That's what he used to call them. When two individuals know they have to hug, but their hearts aren't in it, and that ends up being reflected in the fact that they engage in as little physical contact in the hug as possible.

There have been reports that Senator McCain wanted to pick Senator Lieberman or former Governor Ridge to round out the ticket, but that - at the last minute - the Right Wing of the party forced Palin on him.

The A-frame hug after Governor Palin's speech indicates that this is plausible, if not probable.