My response to an excellent post by Karnythia on The Angry Black Woman and other comments in the thread:

The Rovian Republicans deploy a very sophisticated form of bullying, and the intent, just like that of a 6th grade bully, is to madden their opponents to the point where they do something stupid.

They are trying to put Obama into a position in which he cannot avoid doing the wrong thing: either he responds to Spiro T. Agnew-style attacks from a v.p. candidate who has shown no substance so far on genuine issues (in which case he both looks like an angry black man and participates in this content-free sparring match), or he continues to discuss the very serious issues that could tear this country apart over the next few years (in which case he looks like a guy who can’t push back).

If the lipstick retort was intentional, it was clever and funny. (After all, Palin’s the one who brought up lipstick in the first place, and Obama managed to get in a jibe while making a serious point about the Republicans’ attempt to co-opt or devalue his claim of change.) However, it failed in that it provided another opportunity for the Republicans to derail any conversation about issues.

The more we chatter about this, the less attention we have for the serious matters. What is going to happen in this country as the world gets hotter and hotter and our debt — to other nations and to fat-cat military subcontractors — grows larger and larger? What is going to happen to people who are not already wealthy?

Scientific study is being pushed out of school curricula for creationism, much of the arctic will turn to mush over the next decade or two, as the permafrost thaws. Sarah Palin can do a lot of damage, even if she just stays in Alaska.

Karnythia, you bring up some excellent issues about Palin’s fitness to govern. Those issues and the larger issues about what this country should be doing to recover from the past eight years: these are the things we should be talking about. Not whether Obama insulted all women with a mild jibe at someone who’s been after him with a pike for the past week.

I’m not saying women should take insults or abuse from men because Obama’s got to win. I’m saying that we shouldn’t get caught up in the drama of personalities: let’s stick to the issues, and make the politicians address them.

Obama is trying to and, frankly, he needs our help there.