President Obama Apologizes to Kamala Harris

President Obama showed some serious class today, and in the process, set a good example for the country. He called California District Attorney Kamala Harris for commenting on her looks in a professional setting. Politico reports:

President Obama called California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Thursday to apologize for his comments about her appearance that have drawn a storm of criticism.

“He called her to apologize for the distraction created by his comments,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said during his briefing Friday, later adding that the president had also “apologized for the remark.”

Obama “did not want in any way to diminish the attorney general’s professional accomplishments and her capabilities,” Carney said. “He fully recognizes the challenges women continue to face in the workplace and that they should not be judged based on appearance.”

Good job, Mr. President!

At The Atlantic, Garrance Franke-Ruta explains Why Obama’s ‘Best-Looking Attorney General’ Comment Was a Gaffe

President Obama’s biggest gaffe yesterday when speaking of California Attorney General Kamala Harris was not in flirtatiously complimenting her as “the best-looking attorney general,” but in introducing an observation from the system of beauty into a forum that was about the system of power.

What’s that, you say? Irin Carmon does a great job in Salon in laying out the bounds of propriety for when it’s appropriate to talk about a woman’s looks as a general matter. But I’ve long felt we lack a solid theoretical underpinning for easily discussing these issues, and why precisely it is that admiring and complimenting women for the beauty they work so hard to maintain–and let’s be clear, nobody looks like Harris at her age (48) without effort and without herself valuing beauty and fitness, which are achievements as much or more than naturally occurring properties–can sometimes be inappropriate.

It seems to me–and I touched on this a bit a 2009 Slate piece–that a simple distinction between the two worlds in which women today operate can help us think about this: They are the system of beauty, and the system of power.

Take a look at the rest–it’s a thoughtful and well-argued piece.