Today, CNN reported Obama brushed off a female reporter with the comment, "wait a minute, SWEETIE, I'll get back to you later". He didn't get back to her until he left an apology at her office for using the sexist term. He later told reporters about the gaff, "I call all kinds of people sweetie". Give me a break; all kinds of people is BO code for females. Bet he doesn't call Chris Matthews, his biggest man crush fan of all, "sweetie".

If Mr. Obama intends to unite the party, and at this point that looks like a whole bunch of women, he needs to stop making excuses for his sexism. That language is called sexual harassment in most professional circles, and excuses don't cut it. When you're yelling about every perceived bit of racism, then there's no slack for denigrating females, Mr. Obama. No doubt, Keith Olberman of msnbc, will fail to grasp the seriousness of this sexist slur, unlike the irrational rant he made about Hillary not firing Geraldine Ferraro for her observation about Obama's race a factor in the campaign. I guess, boys will just be boys.

I'm a woman, and all I can say is--get real.

Link please...

May 14, 2008 Obama apologizes for 'sweetie' comment Posted: 09:13 PM ET From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

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This is real. And so is this from the same article:

Obama also took some heat in Pennsylvania last month for referring to a factory worker as "sweetie."

It may be that he's a slow learner, which I doubt, or he has no interest in losing the sexist attitude, which will cost him votes from women that insist on being respected.

Well, it's certainly poor political technique--especially for someone his age. It DOES seem that he does it all the time--which probably means it's totally innocuous (does he REALLY seem like the kind of person who likes to go around insulting people?).

It is quite surprising that he makes such clumsy mistakes.

Stevie, sexist patronizing is far from innocuous; it is horrifically damaging in the same way racism is damaging. Most people have an understanding that displays of racism are not o.k., but a lot people, have not gotten that far with their understanding of sexism. I grew up in the deep south where the best of folks could not see the harm in their language of racism, as they considered some of the terms endearing, and "normal".

We haven't gotten that far in our understanding of sexist language, expectations and behaviours. But you can easily see the damage when 8 yr. olds are sexually objectified, women are openly and publically called any number of degrading names. To make the difference more understandable, imagine if Don Imus had referred to Tony Dungey's winning team as a "nappy headed bucks". The public outrage would have been deafening. With the Rutgers women's bb team, the slander was taken as affront to their race, with little attention to the sexism.

That's the difference, and Barack Obama should, by his experience of racism, know better than to use language that belittles women. Sorry, if this has sounded like a lecture, but I expect better from a man that claims to want to unite the party.

Somebody earlier asked if there was any random brain fart too stupid to post if you thought it would help Hillary. This is pretty much proof there isn't.

Get a life.

Get a life.

Dear Gyrrl,

it's lovely for you that you get to demonize anyone you wish by their word choice.

The rest of us are left with the need to also determine the speaker's actual meaning before characterizing his intentions .

I very much doubt that Barack Obama intends to patronize women...very much doubt that. More likely, he's used the phrase many many times and nobody has seen fit (before it became an unfortunate habit) to straighten him out about how most women would interpret it.

It IS a shame (or something uncomplimentary) that he is so oblivious to modern realities. I don't want to try to excuse his insensitivity--only to explain it. Those who are looking for ways to demonize him (or any other male!) are not really interested in actual reasons or explanations.

Maybe he'll have to take some lessons from Bill Clinton in the proper handling of the modern woman.

oh, sweetie, you really need to find something important to be concerned about, like his racist wife and mentor....

So his wife is a racist? So she hates white people? So tell me, great genius, which half of her husband does she hate?

Before you make stupid accusations, you may want to think it through first.

Now we have the same game racists play when they get caught in acts of racism; invalidate the racism and denigrate the person pointing out the racism,only we're talking sexism.

Nobody is demonizing Obama; and it is sorta, kinda what the whole democracy thing is about-to voice an opinion. Confronting his sexist language is a legitimate post, Moron-i, although I suspect you're quite interested in the smell of your own farts rather than growing up.

And "the proper handling of women" is not much better than "sweetie". This isn't brain surgery to think about extending respect to half the human race. Or, maybe it kinda is.

I moved to the midwest from new england almost a decade ago. I'm still taken aback when women call me sweetie. I get it from women my age serving me coffee and women who could be my grandmother. It always seems surprisingly intimate, which I enjoy even if it comes from someone I've just met.

yep, I've been called sweetie by women many times too. I think it wasn't smart on Obama's part, but it was certainly not horrific.

Also, grryl, I think you Imus discussion is wrong. "ho" is also very much racial. The whole phrase "nappy-headed ho" goes together. The question to ask would be what the public response would have been if he had said "nasty-looking ho", and I suspect the reaction would have been similar.