From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone.

This week, the campaign got just a little bit grimyer.

On Friday, the Obama campaign posted an ad that seemed to make an issue not just of McCain's policies, but also his age.

But the big political story this week involved much ado about

absolutely nothing. So now, a quick trip down bad memory lane starting Tuesday with a bit

of Obama rhetoric about McCain's economic policies at a Virginia campaign stop.

You know, you can put a lipstick on a pig.

It's still a pig.

Which the McCain campaign spun into a web-only ad,

suggesting that one lipstick reference

plus another lipstick reference equals sexism.

You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom

and a pit bull, lipstick.

But, you know, you can't, you know, you can put lipstick on a pig.

Now, this was a web ad costing very little to produce, but earning very, very much in free media exposure from apparently outraged-starved news channels.

Larry, the fight is you're talking about between the McCain ticket and the Obama ticket gets hotter and tighter.

The latest battle of a phrase Senator Obama used today, like putting lipstick on a pig.

If only it had stopped there.

Obama says he was criticizing his rival's policies, but John McCain's campaign accused

the Illinois senator of calling VP nominee Sarah Palin the pig.

...