Obama's 'Sweetie' Problem
If the media truly are not more gender than race biased, then Barack Obama's remarks on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania this week should get as much coverage as Hillary Clinton's remark about Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson.
While flirting with female factory workers in Allentown, he called one "sweetie," a paternalistic way to address a woman if there ever was one. It might have worked had he been trying to do his best imitation of Lily Tomlin's Ernestine, the telephone operator, but this was no spoof. This was Obama trying to relate to working-class women in a way that went directly south.
And speaking of MLK: "Presidential candidates John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama will pay homage to the civil rights movement today as part of commemorations marking the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination."
Clinton has the most making-up to do in her Memphis appearance. While she was still front-runner for the Democratic nomination and Obama was a relative unknown, she was garnering up to 75 percent of African-American support. Since then, he has won some 90 percent of the black vote.
She and her campaign associates have not helped alter those numbers. First, she ineptly and inadvertently minimized King's legacy by saying his civil rights movement never would have become law without LBJ signing the civil rights bill. In addition, two campaign surrogates, her husband and former vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro, made comments that drew accusations the Clinton campaign was "playing the race card."
Clinton has posted a video on her website honoring King's legacy and recalling how she saw him speak in Chicago while she was a high school student.
This is a claim she made in her autobiography, Living History, and while it's been subjected to media inquiries into its veracity, no one yet has been able to prove that it's untrue.
Did Clinton hear King speak in Chicago in 1963? As Bob Somerby would say (today being a day for extra-careful attribution), we have no idea.
So far the media have done nowhere near as good a job promulgating the "sweetie" comment as they have questioning Clinton's claims.
Tags: presidential election 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton
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Adding to my thoughts
BTW: "Sweetie" is not always considered as flirting. Sometimes it shows that a person is a source of loyal affection, friendliness or even love (whether that be relationship type love or other). I do not think any logical person, who is a candidate for presidency, would flirt on a woman or vice versa to show their indecency, especially while being married. I mean c'mon, if you think that flirting is indecent or wrong against a woman or vice versa, then you should consider people flirting with eachother on the streets to be commiting an act of indecency also. I am Muslim, so i believe that it is indecent in all cases except for married people, but do not put double-standards on classes of people. If you say that it is just not meant at a time when people are supposed to discuss politics then you are correct; except that a bit of flirting, such as one word shouldn't be wrong, since flirting is everywhere... unless if you believe flirting is all wrong.
Now "sweetie" is considered sexist?
Dear Bonnie Erbie,
By saying "sweetie", Barrack Obama wanted to send a message of loyal affection or friendliness(even the definition in dictionary.com supports this). This term has been shaped through many years of expressions and it is not intended to make a woman be viewed as a sex-oriented object. Even if it is for the woman to be complemented that way, she should be proud someone called her beautiful. Truthfully, some women like you don't even deserve to be called that, because inside you are simply not. This is because you doubt too much, and opress loyal men, such as Barrack Obama, who want your rights and even rights that you do not deserve. Such rights that are not deserved are spread in the U.K and many other places, even the military's standard has been lowered for women to enter. Will you please just quit this meaningless whining? If a man is called "cute" by a woman, is he supposed to say that she is sexist? Please stop these double-standards and don't make situations more serious if they really are not. People would think as people grow older they learn more about life, but this is just infuriating and sad at the same time. I hope you realize your ways, and fix them. Please do not waste life on switching between justice and injustice; instead, improve life and strive to make your community a better one.
Yours Truly,
Shamlan
The point isn't so much that he said "sweetie" - which is certainly innappropriate - but that he used it intending to be dismissive; "hold on a second sweetie" (exit stage right). It's alarming but not particularly surprising - I'm male and find most male-only culture deeply if often subtly sexist, including among very progressive-minded friends.
But Obama was on a factory floor, campaigning to a bunch of blue-collar men. He gave them a picture of exactly the kind of guy who answers their worries about him - that his cultural roots are alien to theirs. Putting down women is something men can generally agree about, even if they won't voice it.
His mistake, somewhat surprisingly for a relatively Internet-savvy candidate, was that he forgot he was, as always, simultaneously campaigning on YouTube.
Anyway regardless of whether he's purely playing a part, seeing how easily he plays it will lose him as many points as believing in what he hears himself say. We're pattern-watching animals, and all we have to watch is behaviour.
Not quite the same as offering your wife up for a biker beauty contest, of course, but that was a different subset of a different audience. And a different wife (if Obama tried that line I think he'd be defenestrated at home).
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