Some passages in Barack Obama's commencement address Monday at Barnard College on Broadway didn't make the media quote machine -- especially the ones whacking the media, and the comparative stupidity of men. Now that's a way to build a gender gap. The "founding mothers" were smarter than the Founding Fathers, he quipped.
CNSNews.com reported the media slam -- which is an odd way to treat your most devoted supporters:
“No wonder that faith in our institutions has never been lower, particularly when good news doesn’t get the same kind of ratings as bad news anymore,” Obama said. “Every day you receive a steady stream of sensationalism and scandal and stories with a message that suggest change isn’t possible; that you can’t make a difference; that you won’t be able to close that gap between life as it is and life as you want it to be."
CNN ran a large chunk of speech in the 2 pm hour Monday that included that passage, along with what followed, in the "don't let the media stop you for doing idealistic things" vein. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank was the rare journalist to note the "founding mothers" crack. The Constitution is an "extraordinary document," said Obama:
Yes, it had its flaws — flaws that this nation has strived to protect (perfect) over time. Questions of race and gender were unresolved. No woman's signature graced the original document — although we can assume that there were founding mothers whispering smarter things in the ears of the founding fathers. (Applause.) I mean, that's almost certain.
And one reason many workplaces still have outdated policies is because women only account for three percent of the CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. One reason we're actually refighting long-settled battles over women's rights is because women occupy fewer than one in five seats in Congress.
Now, I'm not saying that the only way to achieve success is by climbing to the top of the corporate ladder or running for office — although, let's face it, Congress would get a lot more done if you did. (Laughter and applause.)
It's probably wrong to expect Obama would give the commencement address at all-male Morehouse College and pander to men by saying they're smarter than women. But Obama gets to trash males as comparatively stupid and know the feminist media will lap it up, and then not report it.
If Obama really believed that women do it smarter than men, why didn't he let Hillary Clinton win?
PS: This passage seemed to borrow in spirit from Ted Turner in 2004:
"Men have been running the world from a governmental basis since the beginning of time, and we still are living with war and weapons of mass destruction and high military budgets all over the world. And I think if women ran the world for one hundred years, we'd see more money going into education and health care and homes for the homeless, and so forth, and less into the military, and I think we'd be a safer and better world with women in charge for a while." -- CNN founder Ted Turner, Wolf Blitzer Reports, July 15, 2004.
