Did Barack Obama call Sarah Palin a pig? That's the question causing the latest sensation in the presidential campaign.

Obama criticized McCain talk of reforming government by saying, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." That set off a furor among Republicans because, of course, during her convention acceptance speech, Sarah Palin said, "You know what is the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom? Lipstick."

(The whole pit bull image, admiringly used, is the latest illustration of how radical the true Christian life is, as modeled by Jesus: of radical love, compassion and forgiveness. But that's another subject.)

You want irony? It turns out that, just about exactly one year ago, when John McCain was criticizing Hillary Clinton's health care plan, he said this: "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

Was McCain calling Clinton a pig? (She wears lipstick, I've noticed.)

Anyway, within 24 hours of Obama using the "lipstick on a pig" expression, the Republicans had produced and put a political advertisement on the air, to be sure the controversy would grow. Democrats, of course, retaliated with their own extreme retorts.

But here's the thing in all of this: it seems to me that there are some really, really, really important things that the candidates should be talking about in this campaign.

Lipstick is not one of them.

It's all very distressing.

My good wife said, "Good grief. I've decided who I'm going to vote for. I don't think I'll pay any more attention."

Sounds like a good model to follow.