Smear or playing 'gender card?'

It's day two in the "lipstick on a pig" dust-up -- the latest instance in the presidential race of the campaigns warring over words to accuse the other side of dirty pool.

John McCain's campaign is out this morning with a web ad that shows vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, during the GOP convention speech last week, saying that the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is "Lipstick."

The spot then shows Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama telling Virginia voters on Tuesday that they shouldn't believe John McCain and Palin's talk about reforming Washington. "You can put lipstick on a pig," Obama said. "It's still a pig."

Then the ad features footage of CBS anchor Katie Couric commentating about sexism in the campaign, primarily against Hillary Clinton.

"Ready to lead? No," the announcer says over an image of Obama. "Ready to smear? Yes."

This morning, Obama blasted the McCain campaign for foisting another "made-up controversy" and "phony outrage" -- and criticized the news media for taking the bait.

"It's the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics," Obama said before an education speech in Norfolk, Va.

He said his remark was "innocent" and taken out of context and is distracting attention from serious issues such as education, the energy crisis, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The losers are "the American people," Obama said.

"These are serious times and they call for a serious debate about where we take the nation," he added.

The McCain campaign responded to Obama's comments.

“Barack Obama can’t campaign with schoolyard insults and then try to claim outrage at the tone of the campaign. His talk of new politics is as empty as his campaign trail promises, and his record of bucking his party and reaching across the aisle simply doesn’t exist,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said in a statement.

Republicans are still calling on Obama to apologize. Republican National Committee co-chairwoman Jo Ann Davidson this afternoon issued a statement:

“After making comments like the ones Barack Obama made about Governor Palin yesterday, the choice between apologizing and moving on or attacking all over again seems like a no-brainer to most Americans. Unfortunately, Barack Obama chose to dignify his offensive comments by launching more attacks and further underscoring his campaign’s relentless attempts to malign Governor Palin.”

UPDATE: Clinton came to Obama's defense, telling reporters in Washington today, "Barack has made this clear. It was no way meant as an affront."

According to accounts of the press conference, Clinton added that "Republicans need to lift up the dialogue" and blamed McCain's campaign for trying to "divert attention away from challenges facing Americans."

But Carol Fowler, the Democratic Party chairwoman in South Carolina, threw fuel on the smoldering fire, telling Politico today that Palin's “primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”

A key McCain supporter, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, called on Obama to denounce Fowler. I hope he will take this opportunity to step out and get this campaign back on track and reject this really outrageous, demeaning statement of someone who’s accomplished a lot in her life," he told reporters on a conference call.

Fowler later apologized, saying she made the statement during an interview about single-issue voters, the Associated Press is reporting.

"I personally admire and respect the difficult choices that women make everyday, and I apologize to anyone who finds my comment offensive," Fowler said in a statement.

"I clumsily was making a point about people in South Carolina who may vote based on a single issue. Whether it's the environment, the economy, the war or a woman's right to choose, there are people who will cast their vote based on a single issue," she continued. "That was the only point I was attempting to make."

Former Massachusetts governor Jane Swift, a leader of a new "truth squad" defending Palin, had blasted Obama Tuesday night, calling his "lipstick on a pig" comment "disgraceful" and asserting that "he owes Governor Palin an apology."

Swift said Obama's comment was gender-specific: "She's the only one of the four presidential or vice presidential candidates who wears lipstick."

The Obama campaign hit back, accusing McCain of playing the "gender card."

“Enough is enough The McCain campaign’s attack tonight is a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy -- the same analogy that Senator McCain himself used about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s healthcare plan just last year. This phony lecture on gender sensitivity is the height of cynicism and lays bare the increasingly dishonorable campaign John McCain has chosen to run,” Obama campaign senior advisor Anita Dunn said in a statement.

The Obama camp also sent around comments from former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee saying that Obama was not referring to Palin.

"It’s an old expression, and I’m going to have to cut Obama some slack on that one," Huckabee said on Fox News Channel. "I do not think he was referring to Sarah Palin; he didn’t reference her. If you take the two soundbites together, it may sound like it. But I’ve been a guy at the podium many times, and you say something that's maybe a part of an old joke and then somebody ties it in. So, I’m going to have to cut him slack."

And the Obama camp pointed out that McCain used the same phrase while criticizing Clinton's healthcare plan as the same as the one she pushed as first lady. "I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," he said of her proposal.

The Obama campaign has uncovered other instances of McCain using "lipstick on a pig."

At a February 2007 news conference on Iraq war strategy, McCain said, "It gets down to whether you support what’s being done in this new strategy or you don’t. You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig in my view.”