Today, Barack had this to say: "If you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig."  Predictably, the crowd took this as a jab at Governor Palin.

So which was it?  Was Barack actually referring to the Governor of Alaska -- and the GOP's vice presidential nominee -- as a pig?  Or was he so clueless that he didn't understand the impact of his words?

If it's the former, so much for the politics of "change" that Barack's supposed to personify.  If it's the latter, let's hope that, were he to become President, he doesn't inadvertantly encourage Putin and the rest of the Russians to invade Europe.

Democrats have had plenty of fun mocking President Bush's malapropisms.  But there's world of difference between obviously misspeaking on the one hand and, on the other, engaging in the kind of "deniable smear" that Barack was aiming for here.

Of course, he's panicked.  But that's no excuse for heading straight to the bottom of the barrel.