Are rabbitsmorgasbord and presidentraygun the same person? You sure look alike.

Happy birthday, Sweetie! We'd better get that name changed. Wouldn't want people to think you're lying about your age.

Happy birthday.

Oh, the laugh you provided to me, 57andfemale. You are one of the most reactionary posters on here!

I'm female, almost 60, wildly feminist and totally in agreement with you. He apologized, it's over.
Someone further down mentions having daughters and being used to using names like honey etc. I've certainly found myself doing that with the main people I work with who happen to be young, smart, ambitious and totally wonderful women. It's embarrassing, but luckily, they just laugh and forgive me.
I'm more focussed on what Obama does while in office than what he calls a reporter. If I see policies that go against equal rights for women, then you'll hear me start yelling.

Obama was the one making phony charges of racebaiting primarily by proclaiming that gaffes of middleaged white men were part of a deliberate campaign plan by Hillary. This in the face of the fact that such a strategy was an obvious loser in the Democratic Primaries. I guess he thought that Hillary got to Biden really early.

About the sweetie remark -- it is what is known in poker as a tell -- involuntarily revealing what the speaker is actually thinking.

Sweetie an affectionate diminutive used by men to women, women to men, women to women, and adults to children. It is not used by men who respect women to an adult professional woman doing her job. And if it is used, any apology must recognize that it caries this implied infantilizaiton of the professional woman involved. Obama's so-called apology shows that he simply didn't get it.

Did he really expect us to believe that he uses that term for all sort of people? Men, for example?

Go back and read his book the Audacity of Hope -- you will learn that he thought it was really cute that his wife gave up her big career plans to marry him, that he left the burden of running the household to her even though she decided to continue her career (understandably she got very angry -- he reprots eing baffled as to why)that he began his courtship of her by inducing her to violate her law firm's norm of not having supervisors involved with their underlings (Does anyone know if that law firm made Michelle an offer or not? Did he wreck her chances there?) and that there are three references to women's issues in the index and then you are referred to the entries for family.

What outstanding stands did he take on women's issue you ask?

p26: [Obama was talking to an old codger who had]"airbrushed out of the picture... the absence of women and minorities in the halls of power."

p27: "Beyond that the party cultivated a certain
live-and-let-live philosophy: a philosophy anchored in acquiesence toward or active promotion of racial oppression in the South; a philosophy that depended on a broader culture in which certin norms -- the nature of sexuality , say, or the role of women -- were largely unquestioned; a culture that did not yet possess the vocabulary to force discomfort, much less political dispute, around such issues.

p36: "The victories which the sixties generation brought about -- the admission of minorites and women into full citizenship, the strengthening of individual liberties and the healthy willingness to question authority -- have made America a better place for all its citizens. But what has been lost in the processs, and has yet to be replaced, are those shared assumptions -- that quality of trust and fellow feeling -- that brings us together as Americans."

He can lip synch -- it is not at all clear that he can walk the walk -- he's just not nice enough.

And at least Obama apologized to the reporter. Clinton has yet apologized for her "working, HARD working white people" remark. The closet she came to an apology was agreeing with Rangel that it was a dumb thing to say. That's not an apology.

I have two small daughters and I'm much more prone to using overly cute names because of them. Imagine a Potions Professor adding "ie" to basic words such as "brush", "drink", .... it's pathetic!

I am a mom and not so long ago my boss said something to me and I said "What hon?". I apologized and he knew that I wasn't being inappropriate. I'm very used to frequently using terms like hon, sweetie, boo, etc.

For Chrissakes, it's not like an all out lie or anything.

I'm also the dad of two young girls, just a bit younger than Obama's. If anything, I think him slipping and calling someone sweetie (who it looked to me that he was pretty distracted when he said it) could even be example of a Dad that is actively involved in the parenting of his kids. Which is what feminists (male and female) have been fighting for - equality and parity of the sexes in all of life's responsibilities and rewards.

I can understand how women over 50 might here a man use the term Sweetie and think it harkens back to a time when secretaries, waitresses, and stewardesses were eye candy for the male power structure. But for a dad of Barack's and my generation, especially one who is married to a woman with a successful career, I think the most reasonable explanation is he often uses the term as an active parent to his two wonderful daughters (Obama 51, and Obama 52?, ala Bush 41 and Bush 43?)

Got ya covered.

Not earth shattering? Not earth shattering??? You're whistling past the graveyard, my friend.

Not a single superdelegate has endorsed Obama since the "sweetie-gate" story broke. I think they're all holding back to see if he can survive it. Edwards must be kicking himself right now for having such unfortunate timing with his endorsement.

This is it, friends. If Obama survives this scandal, he'll have the nomination easily. But if not, then ... well, some things are just too depressing to think about.

If he does get the nomination then one consequence is that Hillary will be unable to accept the veep offer. She can't afford to have herself tainted by being associated with a man who doesn't respect women.