Impressions
Obama-Michelle Mix-up
The world's most celebrated couple, US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, has come under spotlight for a gaffe each of them mouthed out to their audiences.
President Obama waxed effusive about Indian-American Kamala Harris, a Democrat top law officer in California and showered some superlatives on her at a fundraiser for his party on April 4. His exact words were: "She's brilliant and she's dedicated, she's tough ... She also happens to be, by far, the best-looking attorney general." It created an instant stir; 'by far the best-looking' part of the statement having been regarded as 'offensive', even some branded it as being 'sexist'.
Obama quickly apologised to Kamala Harris for 'the distraction created by his comments'. He added a social message that he 'fully realises the challenges women continue to face in the workplace'.
It doesn't quite appear to be an utterance slipping out of tongue in an unguarded moment from someone like President Obama. He always has had a way with words that have been measured, worth their weight in gold. But given the torrential words of appreciation, there's a certain feeling of a President charmed by the attributes of a lady which included beauty of the persona aside from her sterling professional qualities. Some thought that instead of emphasising the excellent looks of the attorney general, the President may have laid stress on her effective law enforcement role: Her tough stance on hate crimes and the unusual prosecution of parents of truant children have given her a shiny profile.
Obama can be credited with chivalry but by terming the Indian-American top law officer as 'the best-looking attorney general' he surely delivered a gaffe. The other attorney generals were supposedly put in the shadow, unwittingly though it may have been so.
In an interesting sequel, Michelle Obama for her part in a radio interview started out like this: 'Believe me as a busy single mother ...' She would at once realise her slippage and correct herself: Actually, I should not have uttered the word 'single', even though as a busy mother and spouse of a US President, you sometimes feel 'single'. The presidential preoccupations are heavy and no less are those of the First Lady in her orbit. But she at times has reasons to feel lonely.
Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and no stranger to Bangladesh for her philanthropic work once said something like this: "Tony is creative in his relationship with me coming up with something new or the other to infuse interest into our lives."
Perhaps President Obama and Michelle, two still very young and vibrant personalities without the taint of Tony Blair-Bush association, would try to be each other's mind reader, a little more than before.
One may wonder whether Michelle's remark was, in anyway, subliminally reactive to President Obama's comments on the African-American top law official in the United States.
On a footnote, the moral of the story is that we as human beings are given to certain frailties. Sometimes, we hurt somebody very close to us by remarks that were not intended to be heartbreaking for the person concerned.
The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
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