A DEMAGOGUERY THAT KNOWS NO BOUNDS. Obama accuses dry cleaners of price discrimination on the basis of sex: “We’ll talk about dry cleaners next, right? [Watch all of the women shake their heads in agreement.] I don’t know why it cost more for Michelle’s blouse than my shirt. We got to make sure that America works for everybody.”

Following Obama’s false claims of gender [sic] discrimination last Tuesday, the female Executive Director of the National Cleaners Association responded later the same day with this letter to Obama [PDF] . . .

As an industry, dry cleaners do not charge more for a woman’s shirt than a man’s shirt, they charge more for a hand ironed shirt than they do a machine pressed shirt. If you check your own dry cleaning bill, you’ll find that YOU pay more for the laundering and finishing of your hand ironed tuxedo shirt, than you do for the automated processing of your everyday traditional dress shirt! The price is in the math as calculated by the labor required not the gender [sic] of the client!

Simple math. Hand ironing takes more time and requires more skill, and therefore costs the cleaner more to produce. Because it costs more to produce, he charges more for the work.

The president likely knows better. But do female voters? Heck, even if dry cleaners did actually discriminate, why should we care? Many businesses engage in price discrimination, some on the basis of age with senior discounts, and others on the basis of sex, such as bars with ladies’ night discounts — and very few people consider this to be a big deal. What’s so special about women that discrimination on the basis of sex must never be to their detriment? What delicate little flowers they must be.