GOP candidate to reporter asking about NFL scandals: 'Last one, sweetheart'

Sweetums cutie-poo Charlie Baker

Sweetums cutie-poo Charlie Baker

Like so many other Republicans, Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker is struggling with women voters. In his quest to lure women from Democratic nominee and state Attorney General Martha Coakley, Baker has run the typical "I have a daughter! And a wife!" ads, but without much success. Capping a "women for Charlie" event by calling a female reporter "sweetheart" while giving her the brush-off probably won't help.

Baker had originally said, even as it became clear that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had been grossly negligent at best and likely engaged in a cover-up of Ray Rice's domestic violence, that it was too soon to fire Goodell. Then he changed his mind. As Sharman Sacchetti, a reporter at a local Fox affiliate, was trying to ask him about that turnaround:

“Okay, this going to be the last one, sweetheart, then I’m gonna have to go,” said Baker, patting Sacchetti on the shoulder.

Baker later apologized, but you can't get around his initial instinct. The pat on the shoulder, the "sweetheart," as a way to evade a woman's question ... it tells you something about how seriously he takes this very experienced reporter as a professional. Maybe next, in his quest to sell himself as a pro-woman Massachusetts moderate, Baker should assemble some binders full of women.