Mrs. Coakley, Say It Ain't So

I want to give Martha Coakley the benefit of the doubt on this. I am hoping that somehow she was speaking in jest, or didn't really mean it, or thinks she was misquoted, or something...or anything but this. I wasn't leaning too strongly in either direction in regards to the U.S. Senate election here in Massachusetts, but if Martha Coakley *really* meant this, I know which way my vote WON'T be going (Scot Lehigh in italics, Coakley in bold).

Now wait, I interject, isn’t the real reason she’s running that, just like everyone else in this race, she’s ambitious and wants to be a US senator, and not because of concerns about the quality of leadership in Washington?

“You know, that is a male approach to this thing,’’ the attorney general replies. “Men will play to fight and win. My experience is women get into causes and things they care about, that they want to make a difference.’’

As I've written many times here before, and will many times again, I cheer every time there's a significant *first* milestone in politics, professional sports coaching, business leadership, or anywhere else, for two equally important reasons: first, because in a fair society everyone should have a chance to be anything; and second, because every time there's a major *first* it means the *second* will have less to do with identity and more to do with merit.

However, one thing I'm NEVER going to buy into is the narrative line in certain circles that certain groups are inherently better than others, which is basically what it sounds like Mrs. Coakley is saying here.

HT goes, of all places, to the Sun's Column today, which was the first I had heard about this quote that I since went and looked up online.