D10 Dustup - Stop looking at my package

From SFGate,

The brouhaha started with an invitation for a meet-and-greet later this month with Tony Kelly, who is challenging Supervisor Malia Cohen in the district including Bayview-Hunters Point and Potrero Hill.

Read all about it at SFGate

Stop looking at the package!

It's funny, the first time I read the "Stop looking at the package and start looking at the contents" line, I just assumed they were talking about Tony Kelly.

In the four years I've been running this blog, I admit I have heard people use Supervisor Cohen's good looks and taste in clothes as a way to devalue her competence. The assumption being that a good looking person, not just Cohen but anyone, no matter how smart, must have used their looks to have gotten where they are. But absent any proof, it's just assumption, and needs to be left out of the equation as to whether the person is an effective legislator or not.

Supervisor Cohen can't change her looks any more than Tony Kelly can. As Kelly said in a 2010 debate when someone questioned how he as a white man could represent blacks in our community, "I was born white and will always be white. I can't change that." The fact is Kelly's race and Cohen's looks have no bearing on either person's ability to represent those who are either not white or not supermodels, and it's a shame that either is even mentioned in this context.

Now, if only Tony Kelly would stop wearing pleated pants, we'd all have fewer distractions in this race.