Lipstick comments color presidential campaign

By Deborah Charles

NORFOLK, Virginia (Reuters) - A spat over gender politics erupted on the U.S. presidential campaign on Wednesday with John McCain accusing the Democrat of a sexist attack on his running mate and Barack Obama denouncing Republicans for "lies and phony outrage."

With the race tightening in a struggle for women voters, McCain put out a Web advertisement saying the Democrat Obama was talking about Sarah Palin on Tuesday when he likened Republican plans for government reform to putting "lipstick on a pig."

Palin, a little-known Alaska governor before she became McCain's running mate, had told the Republican nominating convention this month that she was a "hockey mom" and joked that the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull was lipstick.

McCain's advertisement juxtaposes the lipstick remarks by Obama and Palin, then cuts to footage of CBS News anchor Katie Couric observing that one lesson of the campaign was the "continued and accepted role of sexism in American life."

"Ready to lead? No," McCain's ad says in letters across the TV screen. "Ready to smear? Yes."

Obama tackled the controversy head-on during an appearance in Norfolk.

"What their campaign has done this morning is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country," he said. "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 news media."

"I don't care what they say about me but I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and Swift-boat politics. Enough is enough," Obama added. He was referring to attack ads that helped sink the 2004 presidential campaign of Democrat John Kerry, a former Swift-boat captain in the Vietnam war.

Obama campaign spokeswoman Linda Douglass said it was clear from the context of his remarks on Tuesday that the Democratic presidential candidate was not referring to Palin in his comments and was not calling her a pig.

MCCAIN AD PULLED

CBS News said the video-sharing website YouTube.com had agreed at CBS's request to pull the ad on grounds that the Couric clip -- taken without permission from a 3-month-old online commentary about Democrat Hillary Clinton's primary campaign -- was a copyright infringement.

A McCain spokesman disputed the copyright violation claim and said the ad would remain on the campaign's website.

McCain is "running a relentlessly dishonest, disruptive and cynical campaign in hopes of distracting voters" from the issues, she said.

Opinion polls since the Republican and Democratic conventions show McCain closing the gap and drawing even with Obama ahead of the November 4 election.

A Washington Post/ABC News survey found most of McCain's surge was due to a big shift in support among white women voters.