Senator Cory “Spartacus” Booker (D, NJ) says the first criterion he has for his Vice President candidate, should he get the Progressive-Democratic Party nomination, is that the person be a woman.

I’m not going to box myself in, but should I come to it, you know I’ll be looking to women first.

Think about that.  Booker won’t be looking to the best qualified first, and if that turns out to be a woman, great.  He’ll be looking to a woman first because she’s a woman.  How pandering is that?

Think about another implication of that criterion.  His looking to pick a woman because she’s a woman means he doesn’t think women are capable of competing on their own merit.  Women, he’s implying, are just incapable, and the only way they can aspire to the White House is by being selected on the basis of their gender.  How bigoted is that?