False equivalency alert

Calvin Woodward of the AP helpfully notes that the McCain team is falsely claiming that Obama's "lipstick on a pig" comment was a reference to Gov. Palin. However, Woodward was apparently uncomfortable just calling McCain a liar, so he says that Obama does the same sort of thing:

Obama avoids that kind of slick politicking himself. Not.

He's getting more mileage than a hybrid car over McCain's answer to a question about what constitutes a rich person.

"I think that rich should be defined by a home, a good job, an education. ..."

So far so good, but then McCain quipped, "How about $5 million?" Laughter followed, then McCain said, "No, seriously. ..." Too late.

These are not the same things. Obama was jumping on a comment that McCain clearly made about what constitutes being rich. It is quite obvious, however, that Obama was not referring to Palin when he described McCain's campaign as the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig. Obama was not taking McCain out of context. McCain took Obama out of context. There's a difference. One of them is taking advantage of an opponent's poor choice of words. The other is lying. It's okay to point that out.