(cross-posted from Calitics)
On Monday night, Sen. Barack Obama referred to his colleague Sen. Barbara Boxer as a cutie. It struck me as a bit odd, but you know what she is a cutie, and a short Jewish grandmother to boot. She is also a tough as nails, a force to be reckoned with. Evidently, other women in the audience didn't take to it very kindly, as Carla Marinucci from the SF Chron makes clear in a blog post.
The remark "set off a lot of mumuring," said one Democratic strategist in attendance, "among a lot of very strong powerful women around Boxer there who were offended."
I may not be a powerful woman, but I am of some good feminist breeding. Plus, a good liberal education at a Seven Sisters school, complete with requisite Women Studies classes. Of course, I am not the end all be all of judging statements. Take the poll and let me know if you were offended by Obamas statement that Boxer is a "a fighter, a leader, a charmer, a cutie."
The descriptive of a powerful feminist senator raised "a strategic question: is (Obama) ready for prime time? You don't call a U.S. senator a 'cutie,'" said the strategist, whose take was echoed by others.
From an opposition research point of view, this marked "a swing and a miss" by Team Hillary: "It would have been easy to get the blogosphere and make sure Fox News and Drudge Report knew about (the quote), and watch it go .. because in a few months, nobody could have gotten away on it."
It had the potential to put the Illinois superstar candidate under the gun "at the start of two or three days of spectacular days of California coverage. It was the stumble that could have stepped on his L.A. event and his great headlines." (Hey don't blame us, that's how politics works.)
But it didn't happen, and Sen. Joseph Biden must be grumbling -- he was raked recently for saying Obama was "clean" and "articulate" as a candidate.
I guess I could have emailed the quote out to all of the top bloggers and tried to create a swarm, but it didn't even cross my mind. Brian probably even has the quote on video. Even as we talked about the speech over dinner, the word cutie didn't even come up.
I wonder who Marinucci is quoting in this post. Did a Hillary staffer really consider pushing this out into the blogosphere?
I find it very interesting that Marinucci fully admits that the press would have been all over this one if we had tried to make it an issue.
The Biden comparison doesn't quite work. The quote from him came in the middle of similar comments about Obama's race and people were already revved up to respond. Racial politics are a lot more divisive than gender ones.
Boxer herself didn't seem to be offended buy it. She laughed heartily and then they hugged, demonstrating their vast height difference. She comes up to his shoulders at best.