“You have to be careful to, first of all, say she is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you’d want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake. She also happens to be, by far, the best looking attorney general in the country.”

—- President Obama, introducing California’s attorney general (and a possible future gubernatorial candidate) Kamala Harris, at a party fundraiser in Atherton, a wealthy suburb of San Francisco

Hey, she IS hot! I’d love to see HER shake her pom-poms! What is it she does again?

You see, all you nay-sayers, another reason why it is inappropriate and unethical for a prosecutor to prominently display herself in the role of unadulterated male eye candy is that it reinforces this kind of subtle (well, not so subtle, really), insidious marginalization of female professionals that occurs daily in offices and places of business all over America. I have taught this in sexual harassment seminars for decades: when a male boss, manager, or superior references a woman’s attractiveness, beauty, or allure in a public settling, it relegates her and all women in that organization to second-class status, and reinforces the glass ceiling. Women who are the target of this sexist, if often innocently intended, practice are usually lulled by the flattery into dismissing such incidents. That has to change. They must register their objections to the speaker for their own sake and that of generations of women to come.

What Obama did was even  worse. Like all Presidents have before him, he sets cultural standards by his conduct, and is always a role model. And, as we all know, the Democratic Party, which deems William Jefferson Clinton as fit to be featured prominently at its National Convention, is the “party of women.” Publicly inking an attorney general’s virtues to her appearance, something that would never, never, never be done to a man,  must be okay, right? Since the various women’s organizations that are Democratic allies typically show little integrity in such situations, they will issue none of the outraged protests that they would surely have done if Mitt Romney of President Bush had said something similarly insensitive and damaging. Thenews media, of course, which Mark Levin cleverly described recently as “Praetorian” (good one, Mark!), similarly is unlikely to find any serious fault with their hero. Let’s see if Mika and Rachel Maddow rush to Obama’s defense this time.

The President’s sexist  comment significantly undermines efforts to eliminate gender bias in the workplace far more than the gaffes of any conservative.

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Facts: Washington Post

Graphic: Daily Beast