Campaign McCain sends out Jane Swift to declare ""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."" For the lipstick on a pig thing. Candidate Obama replies, "What their campaign has done this morning," Obama said, "is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country. They seize on an innocent remark, try to take it out of context, throw up an outrageous ad, because they know that it's catnip for the media."

This stuff is beyond tedious. The only thing more boring than politicians is parsing their speech for true meaning.

But I can't help it. Obama's very denials don't help. A gracious and innocent man would say: "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that as it sounded. I'm accustomed to using that phrase and didn't consider how it would sound with a woman in the race, and woman with a copyright lipstick line to boot. Wow, what a stupid thing to say. My bad." It costs him nothing -- everyone screws up -- and it makes him look courteous. Either he meant it, which would be stupidly coarse, or he's just a thoughtless prick, which might be worse.

And. I can't help recalling that Senator Obama keeps saying things like "they'll try to make you fear me because I look different", though I haven't heard anyone of any reputation say anything like that. He's got a surrogate circulating the idea that "community organizer" is code for "black". If he can complain about things they haven't even said, why can't they complain about things he has?

But this kind of thing is tedious. I wish the McCain folks had let it go; they're ratifying an endless round of this parsing from the Left, who are past masters at this stuff. People could judge Obama's meaning for themselves. Let him embarrass himself all he likes, and don't worry about broadcasting it.

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