There have been diaries about "sweetie-gate" but I wanted to add my impression. For anyone who doesn't know about it, Senator Obama referred to a female reporter as "sweetie". The reporter, Peggy Agar, shouted a question to Senator Obama, "Senator, how are you going to help the American auto worker?" He replied back, "Hold on one second, sweetie, we'll do a press avail."
Although Ms. Agar was not offended (she said she has been called much worse), Senator Obama realized almost immediately that he should not have referred to a reporter as "sweetie" and that he never did get a chance to answer her question. So what did he do? He got on the phone, called her, and left a voicemail apologizing for not answering her question and for referring to her as "sweetie".
Hi Peggy. This is Barack Obama. I'm calling to apologize on two fronts. One was you didn't get your question answered and I apologize. I thought that we had set up interviews with all the local stations. I guess we got it with your station but you weren't the reporter that got the interview. And so, I broke my word. I apologize for that and I will make up for it.
Second apology is for using the word 'sweetie.' That's a bad habit of mine. I do it sometimes with all kinds of people. I mean no disrespect and so I am duly chastened on that front. Feel free to call me back. I expect that my press team will be happy to try to make it up to you whenever we are in Detroit next.
Not, "If I offended you, I apologize," which tries to put the onus on the other person. This was a straightforward, "I shouldn't have said that and I am sorry." In this day where getting a real apology from someone seems to be as hard as pulling teeth, to see a politician realize their error and apologize for it is refreshing. I don't expect anyone to be perfect. I don't expect anyone to go through life without ever saying the wrong thing. But I do expect that people will take responsibility for what they say and apologize when they say something that might offend someone. My opinion of Senator Obama has only gone up because of the way he handled this. He showed that he is a man who is willing to take responsibility for what he says and is not too proud to apologize when he says something wrong.
Side note: Some diarists have commented on the use of the word, "sweetie" in general. I have to admit that I use that word when I am trying to think of a name for a niece or nephew. One product of age is that insignificant details like people's names sometimes takes a few seconds to pull up from my memory so I revert to things like "sweetie" or "honey" for girls and "champ" or "buddy" for boys if my memory is a little slow in getting back to me. So when Senator Obama says that it is a bad habit, I understand. It's still not right to have used it, but he knows that and apologized. Time to move on.