WHY IS OBAMA WEARING LIPSTICK?

Barack Obama, speaking in Norfolk, Virgina on Wednesday (9/10), got out his shovel and dug the hole he's in a little deeper.

The McCain campaign moved to "seize an innocent remark and take it out of context because they knew it's catnip for the news media," he said, thus guaranteeing the "innocent remark" and its fallout would dominate the news for a second day.

Speaking in Lebanon, Virginia the day before, Mr. Obama said Sen. McCain may claim he'll change Washington, but he's really just like President Bush.

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said.  "It's still a pig.  You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change.  It's still going to stink after eight years."

The remark drew "shouts and raucous applause" from his audience, said the AP's Nedra Pickler, whose members were "clearly drawing a connection" to the joke Sarah Palin told in her acceptance speech, that the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick.  

The McCain campaign demanded he apologize for the remark, and rushed out a Web ad (meaning it was meant for YouTube, not paid television) criticizing him for making it.

CBS News yesterday (9/11) forced YouTube to pull McCain's "Lipstick" Ad because it contained an unauthorized clip of Katie Kouric.  No matter – it was already seen by its target audience.

That ad shows the genius of what the McCain campaign is doing.  

Whether its outrage was real or faux over the lipstick gaffe, the McCain campaign has Sen. Obama looking rattled, talking about the Republican candidate for vice president instead of talking about issues that might win him votes.  

That's why the Lipstick Web Ad was designed for an audience of one – The One –  and it worked.  Sen. McCain is so far inside Sen. Obama's OODA loop that I almost feel sorry for him.  Very almost.

The OODA loop is a concept coined by fighter ace John Boyd.  It stands for Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action.  You see something.  You figure out what it means.  You decide what you're going to do about it, and then you do it.  

The winner in a dogfight is the pilot who goes through the OODA loop faster.

Sen. Obama has been on the defensive ever since Sarah Palin's speech at the Republican National Convention.  Candidates who are on the defensive rarely win elections.  It's amazing to me Sen. Obama spends so much time attacking her.  

He's running for president.  She's running for vice president.   When you punch below your weight card, you do not add to your stature.  

It's hard to ignore Sarah Palin or the crowds she attracts.  But Sen. Obama had better try. She's a first rate candidate whose presence on the GOP ticket makes it harder for Sen. Obama to win.  But personal attacks on Ms. Palin and her family just make his problem worse.

The McCain campaign is betting Sen. Obama's ego is so great and his skin so thin that he can't resist responding to the barbs Ms. Palin delivers with such a sweet smile.  So far, they're winning the bet.

The bitter words Sen. Obama had for the news media in Norfolk Wednesday suggest a campaign overcome by panic and confusion.  And ingratitude, considering the way his friends in the press have loaded the dice and stacked the deck on his behalf.

But Sen. Obama has a legitimate beef with the news media.  Were it not for their vicious, baseless attacks on Gov. Palin and her family, the audience for her speech would not have been comparable to his in the Barackopolis.  Nor could she have delivered to Sen. McCain on the following night an even bigger audience than Sen. Obama attracted.

For Republicans, the irony is delicious.
Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.