Sweetie Darling

Barack Obama is developing a habit for patronising women - some women.

Last week, he called female reporter Peggy Agar from Detroit's WXYZ-TV "sweetie" while trying to sidestep her question at a rally. He then compounded the error by calling to apologise and telling her he uses the term when talking to "all kinds of people." Hmm. Not likely. You can bet your bottom dollar that once he gets elected, he won't be referring to Ban Ki-Moon, Gordon Brown, Berlusconi or Sarkozy as sweetie when he goes to meet them. Angela Merkel maybe...

Lucky for him, this gaaffe came so late in the race. Compare and contrast the tone and content of that comment with the speech he gave in Iowa last night, which was a cracker. You have to hand it to him and the scriptwriters. The tone, the timbre, the cadences and the uplifting message. He has it spot on. It was beautifully crafted and delivered.  And he dismissed Clinton just as effectively as he dismissed Agar a week earlier - by heaping praise on her. He spoke eloquently about her commitment and her fight and in so doing, managed to make her look completely ridiculous for continuing to contend a contest that's all but done. The message was clear - he's so over the primaries. Genius tactic. I think he'll be more than a match for McCain come November.  

Let's just hope it was a tactic, he knew what he was doing whether he backtracked or not.

I suppose I'd rather be called Sweetie by him than anything at all by Bush...