Yeah, that was petty on his part, but also petty on the mod's part. He didn't say anything ban worthy in his return post. I mean, sure, he's sort of a dumbass, but you know. We start banning everybody for being a dumbass the internet is going to be pretty barren.
And yeah, Obama got a huge boost for being the polar opposite of one of the most hated presidents of all time. I don't even think that's very inflammatory. It wasn't the only reason he won, but it was definitely a large part of it.