Partly the way he said it and partly the context/where he was it's obvious that he didn't mean shit by it. Change the words around a bit, change the setting/context and it'd be quite the slur though. Should he have been cognizant of that and chosen better words? I dunno, but he is the president. I'm sure black women watch the show too, some of which might be wondering why the president called them a mongrel. I suppose he could have chosen worse words though. Some of the synonyms of the NOUN form of mongrel are mutt, cur, and bastard.
