Keller @ Large: A Woman Can Be President
By Jon Keller, WBZ-TV
BOSTON (CBS) - Interesting article in Wednesday's Boston Globe by Barbara Lee, an expert on the progress – or lack of it – by women in American politics, about why we've never had a female president.
Some of her conclusions make a lot of sense, and some don't.
Lee writes that women enjoy a so-called "virtue advantage," that voters see them almost automatically as more honest. But if an ethical issue crops up, they are quick to "knock them off that pedestal."
That sounds right, as does her claim that likability matters more for a female candidate than a man. And I understand her complaint that "women are running to be CEO of the country, yet we're still asking about their clothes, hair, voices, and now faces."
But things are changing.
Notice how Carly Fiorina rose in the polls after she scorched Donald Trump for his crude remarks about her appearance.
We may still have our share of sexists and racists, but don't forget that our president's skin color didn't stop him from being elected twice.
And when Lee points to Martha Coakley's 2010 campaign blunder calling Curt Schilling a Yankee as an example of an overblown misstep, she ignores the fact that the clueless but minor slip was part of a broader pattern of Coakley seeming aloof and disconnected from local culture.
Listen to Jon's commentary:
No question about it, the deck is still too often stacked against women in politics, especially here in supposedly-progressive Massachusetts.
But we're getting there.
And anyone who claims a woman can't win the presidency next year doesn't know what they're talking about.
