Obama Branded Sexist for Remark on Indian-American Kamala Harris

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,” Obama said praising Harris, who is the first woman and the first Indian-American to be elected to the office of Attorney- General of California. “She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country – Kamala Harris is here,” Obama said amidst applause. “It’s true. Come on,” he said amidst laughter. “She is a great friend and has just been a great supporter for many, many years,” Obama said at a fund raising event in California, yesterday.

Daughter of an Indian mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer specialist who emigrated from Chennai to the United States in 1960 and a Jamaican-American father, Harris, 48, is the first female African- American and Asian-American attorney general in California, as well as the first ethnic Indian-American attorney general in the United States. But Obama’s playful remarks set of a little storm. “Obama calls Kamala Harris ‘bestlooking:’ Accurate, but sexist?” wondered the Los Angeles Times. “Does merely stating the obvious make the president sexist? More wolfish than sexist, I’d say.

And this may be a little problem he needs to work on,” said columnist Robin Abcarian. Obama had rekindled “talk about boys club” suggested The Washington Post noting his remarks “buzzed through Twitter and other social media, where reaction ranged from appalled to leave-the-guy-alone.” “Obama in Need of Gender- Sensitivity Training,” said the New York Magazine. “It’s not a compliment. And for a president who has become a cultural model for many of his supporters in so many other ways, the example he’s setting here is disgraceful,” wrote columnist Jonathan Chait. Obama was thus left feeling “the heat Thursday after calling a powerful female official smoking hot” as the New York Daily News put it. Obama’s comment on Harris soon became a buzz word on social media. On Twitter #KamalaHarris became very popular with people commenting on the comment. Harris, is often described as the “female Barack Obama” and is seen as a potential gubernatorial candidate for California

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