Coakley and 'The Woman Thing'

One of the factors that went into Martha Coakley's loss in Massachusetts was what insiders call "the woman thing." Coakley distinguished herself in a field of men in the Democratic primary as the first woman Massachusetts would send to the Senate. She wrapped herself in Emily's List, showcasing herself as a woman candidate—as opposed to a candidate who happened to be a woman, a fine but important distinction in politics—and making her gender the most memorable thing about her. A male caller into C-Span last week said when he watched Coakley campaign he expected her to break into song—"I am woman, hear me roar." He described himself as a Democrat but said her emphasis on gender turned him off. Massachusetts is portrayed as a bastion of liberal elites, but its voting population is dominantly blue collar and working class, not feminism's prime audience.

Hillary Clinton won Massachusetts in the 2008 primary contest, and the populist spirit that she embodied campaigning in Pennsylvania and other late-primary states, downing shots and recalling how her grandfather taught her to shoot a gun, attracted working-class voters in a way the stern, by-the-book Coakley could not. In the final days before the vote, Coakley's campaign team was hoping for a teary diner moment like the one Hillary had in New Hampshire, which rallied women voters and gave Hillary a comeback victory in the '08 race. It is way too simplistic to say Coakley was the victim of sexism. You can be a woman and follow the Red Sox enough to know Curt Schilling isn't a Yankee fan. Coakley was outmatched by Scott Brown when it came to personality and charisma. A friend summed it up this way in an e-mail: Sexy Independents Rule.