Americans weary of “bittergate” can rejoice. It’s time for “sweetiegate.”
The presidential election has veered off onto another odd tangent, courtesy of Sen. Barack Obama, who uttered not an epithet or insult against blue collar workers — but a term of endearment.
Yesterday, the Illinois Democrat called a female broadcast reporter “sweetie,” the moment recorded for posterity on video. In 24 hours, the three-second exchange had inspired global news coverage, followup stories from the offended correspondent and a debate on both feminism and news credibility.
Oh, the drama.
Peggy Agar, a reporter for ABC affiliate WXYZ, had been trailing after Mr. Obama during a morning campaign appearance at a Michigan auto plant, demanding to know what he planned to do for Detroit auto workers.
“Hold on one second, sweetie, we’re going to do — we’ll do a press avail,” he said, casually implying that he’d take care of the question during a formal question-and-answer period with other reporters.
The promised moment never happened. A vexed Mrs. Agar went public with the tape and her annoyance, noting that “this sweetie” never got a story.
By 3:16 p.m. — the exact time carefully noted by WXYZ — Mr. Obama was in major mea culpa mode with his entire apology either broadcast or posted online by the station.
“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,” the candidate said on her voice mail.
“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,” Mr. Obama said.
Mrs. Agar made cameo appearances on the evening news, where eager anchors demanded to know if she was “shocked.”
She said she had been offended that Mr. Obama had not answered her question.
“Now here’s a little gaffe from Barack Obama that will energize the “I Am Woman”-humming folks in Hillaryland,” said Tim Graham of the Media Research Center today.
“As gaffes go, this seems mild. ’Sweetie’ is a very nice word, especially if used with a person you find to be sweet, like a wife or daughter or niece. It beats ’Hold on one second, you pushy broad.’ If Obama ever said that, Hillary would have a party,” Mr. Graham added.
The video footage is on YouTube, inspiring more than 6,000 stories and blog mentions, according to a Google News count. Many news organizations covered the “sweetie” moment with a raft of puns of their own: The British Broadcasting Service, CNN and The New York Times, which included the tidbit that Mr. OBama had called a female Pennsylvania factory woman “sweetie” in April.
“The Caucus,” a Times blog, had drawn close to 300 comments in the aftermath yesterday — including one visitor who felt the incident reflected a “petty media” and another who urged, “rise up American sisters and stand up for your rights.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.