PLUS ÇA CHANGE...

WITHIN DAYS OF MCCAIN choosing Palin as his
running mate, the news broke out that Palin’s seventeen-
year-old daughter, Bristol, was pregnant and had chosen to
keep the child and raise it with the support of her family.

“So suddenly pregnancy is an issue. It was a kind of double
step: It seemed that McCain immediately started to regret his
choice of Palin, but now he was pregnant with the situation.
And also, McCain had denounced Obama as just a celebrity,
but he couldn’t have picked a more empty, celebrity-type VP.”

–BARRY BLITT

Top left and opposite: Barry Blitt was par-
odying the 1991 cover of Vanity Fair that
then-editor Tina Brown had commis-
sioned from Annie Leibovitz (above). The
groundbreaking image had heralded a new
attitude toward pregnant bodies.

IN HER acceptance
speech for the vice
presidency, Palin said,
“What’s the difference
between a hockey mom and a pit bull?
Lipstick.” A week later, in a campaign
speech, Obama said, “John McCain says
he’s about change too. . . . That’s not
change, that’s just calling the same thing
something different. You know, you can
put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”
The Internet was instantly awash with red
lips painted on photos of Obama, Hillary,
McCain, and pigs. Meanwhile, artists sent
sketches: John
Cuneo (left) used
the idea of lip-
stick to represent
the trace of kisses
left by McCain as
he hugged Bush
in a well-known
photo (right).

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