The comment was offensive and inappropriate, and contributes to a culture in which women, however accomplished in their professions, can expect to be casually objectified and judged publicly according to their looks.
I didn't see any indication anywhere that she was "very offended" though, OP - where did you read that? She had no comment, as far as I'm aware. Whether she was personally offended or not, it was offensive and Obama was right to apologise quickly. The "sweetie" remark to the female journalist was awful too.
The Democratic primary in 2008 was a dirty race, for sure. Obama and his campaign didn't speak out against the sexist media coverage of Clinton, and should have. But I don't remember any sexist remarks / ads coming from Obama or the campaign at the time and Google doesn't show up much - can you remind me what you're referring to, Phyllis ?
I do remember that the Clinton campaign relied heavily on racism, from brushing off Obama's win in South Carolina with references to Jesse Jackson having won there in '84 and '88 (the subtext that he only carried the state because he's black was very clear), to actually suggesting when she was way behind in May that the reason she wasn't conceding was the possibility (and it came across sounding horribly more like a hope) that Obama - who had received many credible death threats by racist extremist groups - might be assassinated before the convention. I cannot believe that a person as intelligent and experienced as she would not have known what she was doing by using Bobby Kennedy as the example of a frontrunner who didn't end up getting the nomination in the end (because he was dead by then).
It's a big stretch to make reference to the 2008 Democratic primary, and its ugly exploitation of the sexism and racism that is so deeply ingrained in American culture, without recognising that it occurred on both sides of the political fight.
I don't want to derail the thread though, because whatever racism President Obma faces, it doesn't excuse his own sexism.
I like Obama, but I think he is sexist in the way that well-intentioned men who aren't fully aware / accepting of the reality of male privilege can sometimes be. He really needs to work on it, and I think it's good that he got a big backlash for these most recent comments.
His comments about women's rights during this most recent campaign were so often phrased in terms of "our wives", "our daughters", "our sisters" having bodily autonomy, equal opportunity at work, etc., and the paternalistic language really grated on me.
I don't know why he finds it so hard to speak out against injustices against women, without basing his objection on the fact that they are some man's daughter, mother, or wife 