No pass, Obama
There are some who say that the press went light on Obama until the Wright scandal. Whether that's true or not, he dug his own hole by calling a female reporter "sweetie."
I wanted to see the video for myself, because tone really matters with that word. I come from the South, where it's not uncommon for that term to be used casually but affectionately -- like the nice clerk who knows your mama and thus, you, or the kindly lady refilling your sweet tea while out at a restaurant. Had it been said like that, I might've given him a pass. Unfortunately, he used the wrong tone, as seen here:
Just downright condescending and dismissive. Yes, he was clearly distracted, and yes, he apologized for it and said it was a bad habit, but would he have said that to a male reporter? "Excuse me for just a moment," would've worked just fine.
I'm still voting for him, but if he's going to move into the big leagues, he's got to do better than this. We don't need another Democratic president with female trouble of any variety. Mind, getting Bill Clinton back up there could be far worse, but Obama doesn't need to follow in his footsteps.
I'll admit that I find Hillary's "white people" remark more offensive and egregious, but she's becoming irrelevant so fast that it almost doesn't matter. Hers is worse because it wasn't a slip of the tongue, but a calculated attention grab as an official line from an increasingly-desperate campaign.
I wanted to see the video for myself, because tone really matters with that word. I come from the South, where it's not uncommon for that term to be used casually but affectionately -- like the nice clerk who knows your mama and thus, you, or the kindly lady refilling your sweet tea while out at a restaurant. Had it been said like that, I might've given him a pass. Unfortunately, he used the wrong tone, as seen here:
Just downright condescending and dismissive. Yes, he was clearly distracted, and yes, he apologized for it and said it was a bad habit, but would he have said that to a male reporter? "Excuse me for just a moment," would've worked just fine.
I'm still voting for him, but if he's going to move into the big leagues, he's got to do better than this. We don't need another Democratic president with female trouble of any variety. Mind, getting Bill Clinton back up there could be far worse, but Obama doesn't need to follow in his footsteps.
I'll admit that I find Hillary's "white people" remark more offensive and egregious, but she's becoming irrelevant so fast that it almost doesn't matter. Hers is worse because it wasn't a slip of the tongue, but a calculated attention grab as an official line from an increasingly-desperate campaign.