Lipstick on the campaign trail_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Lipstick on the campaign trail

Anyways, with the smear from the lipstick, the American election campaign has taken another nasty turn, and according to the Economist (America not quite at its best, September 18, 2008), “this is mainly the Republicans’ fault”. “In the past two weeks,” continues the magazine, “while banks have tottered and markets reeled, the contending Democrats and Republicans have squabbled and lied rather than debated. Mr McCain’s team has been nastier, accusing Mr Obama of sexism for calling the Republican vice-presidential candidate a pig, when he clearly did no such thing.”

Indeed much ado, as though Americans have no better worries to concern with than a lipstick.

Incidentally, if this article leaves you with an impression that I’m pro-Democrat or that I support Obama, then that’s a wrong impression to leave. Let me clarify my position regarding American elections. First, I am pro democracy in that I think it a great idea that political leaders who do a bad job should be allowed to take a leave. Second, I support another US president from another Party to run that country thanks mainly and merely to the monumental mess the current administration has made, what with war in Iraq and turmoil on Wall Street. Other than that, it is my firm belief that American presidents are more or less the same, especially when it comes to foreign policy and international war-keeping.

But that’s more than our concern here. Here, and for now, we’ll just bother with the semantics involving “putting lipstick on a pig.” And that phrase means, again and to borrow a Chinese vernacular, putting a trunk on a pig to make it elephant-like.