COMMENTARY | While speaking to all 980 people in the 2,200 seat Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, Florida, President Obama drew attention to what he called DNC Chair, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's "cute smile."
"What do you guys think of our new DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz?" CNS News reported Obama asking the thin audience. "We are so thrilled to have her. You want Debbie on your side. She's a mom, she's got that cute smile and all that, but she is tough. Don't mess with Debbie. We are so glad of her leadership."
Conservative women's groups see a double standard in the absence of a reaction from the media and liberal feminists to President Barack Obama using terms such as "cute" to describe Wasserman Shultz but do not find the comment offensive themselves. Charlotte Hayes, a senior fellow at the Independent Women's Forum said, "If a conservative had said this, they might have gone quite crazy."
Thus far, The National Organization for Women (NOW) has remained silent on the matter. When asked about the president's remarks, NOW President Terry O'Neill only had enough time to say that NOW Spokeswoman Latoya Veal did not have time to comment.
Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, did say that Obama's descriptions of Schultz are not characteristic for a Democratic president. "Of all people who ought to be offended at President Obama's statement it should be an ardent feminist like Wasserman-Schultz."
Indeed. In fact, wasn't it Debbie herself who recently bragged to reporters of what a women's champion Obama is, saying that reminding women that Obama signed pay equity legislation for women, named two women to the Supreme Court and established the White House Council for Girls was going to give them an edge in 2012? According to Debbie, the outreach to women during the campaign "will be unprecedented," US News reported. Unfortunately, the only thing extraordinary is how quickly people have gotten tired of hearing them pluck that string.
According to the Washington Times, when White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told liberal activists at the Netroots Nation conference in Minnesota that the president championed an equal-pay law, the moderator replied, "Frankly we're a little sick of hearing about that one."
"It is curious that President Obama avoided any specific mention of Wasserman Schultz's performance in her new position," Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, told CNSNews.com. "Her caustic style and outrageous slanders have set a new low for even partisan politics."
While Wendy Wright feels that Obama's descriptions of his DNC Chair isn't characteristic for a Democratic president. I guess calling a female reporter in Michigan "sweetie" in May of 2008 didn't count because Obama was still a senator.
