Why Obama Had to Apologize

Garance Franke-Ruta explains why President Obama needed to apologize for calling California Attorney General Kamala Harris “the best-looking attorney general.”

“Just as it’s perfectly appropriate to tell a colleague she looks gorgeous when she’s dressed to the nines for some black tie work event, it would be inappropriate to refer to her as ‘gorgeous over there’ during a work meeting. Doing so takes her out of the system of power and puts her into the system of beauty in a setting in which power is the value that’s brought her to the table. And that, dear readers, is a gaffe.”