Big Girls Don't Cry
But Hillary does.
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Tools:
In its daily E-mail update, the New York Times said today:
Hillary Rodham Clinton's teary-eyed exchange with a voter and her sharpened argument on experience were among the turning points in New Hampshire.
The Times was correct to lead with her "teary-eyed exchange with a voter" before mentioning "experience." If you look at other articles about Hillary, you'll find that most writers believe that her tears gave her an emotional connection to women voters who swung the state to her.
The media have been wanting to anoint Hillary since she announced. The day before the vote, New Hampshire TV folk were close to mourning the fact that her 20 point lead had disappeared and that Mr. Obama was 10 points up in the polls. Then came her tears and a flurry of articles about how earlier presidential candidates had been undone when they cried in public.
Crying in public may create an emotional connection to women voters, but an emotional connection is a lousy reason to elect someone to sit within arm's reach of our nuclear arsenal. One of the advantages of our interminably long process for choosing a President is that we find out who can take it and who can't.
Regardless of ideology, regardless of experience, situations come up that don't fit into anything anyone's ever thought about before. Frankly speaking, we were caught flat-footed by 9-11 and had to make policy on the fly. Going emotional in such crises is a recipe for disaster.
Although nobody wants to admit it with Hillary in the running, the most important qualification for President of the United States is emotional stability. There will be pressure. There will be fatigue. There will be frustration. The last thing we want is a President who makes an emotional connection to an enemy head of state who chooses the right moment to ask about her well-being and makes her fall apart.
Worse, there will be moments when every nerve is crying out to grab the Nuclear Football, push the button, and let God sort the bastards out. Is that what we want to happen?
As Mr. Obama has pointed out, Mr. Rumsfeld had experience, and look where that got us.
Sure, Hillary spent 8 years in the White House, but so did the pastry cook. When asked about her accomplishments, she speaks of all the things she's advocated such as writing books that tell us we're too dumb to raise our own children, and that we parents need government help. Advocacy is one thing, but what has she done? She cried.
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Tools:
What does Chinese history have to teach America that Joe Biden doesn't know?
"If there's a smile on my face, it's only there to fool the public. But when comes down to foolin' you, now Will that's a different subject. Don't let my glad expression give you wrong impression, really I'm sad, I'm hurtin' so bad.....
Smokey Robinson
"Tears of a Clown"
First, the Clinton Cackle. Now, the Clinton Cry. What's next? The Clinton Croak? Here comes the double standard... what would the media do if Huckabee, McCain or Romney cried? I can see the campaign donations flooding in to the Clinton crew from outlying precincts such as Russia, Iran, and Cuba.
Of all the conservative candidates, Huckster has gotten more emotional than the others by far. Does that tell us something up the true Huck?
Romney has probably been the LEAST emotional considering how much he has gotten beaten up by the press and his piers. Giuliani as well.
Being president of the US is arguably a bit tougher than being president of Coca-Cola or RCA, but in both those cases, the hand-picked, well-trained MEN who had been #2 flamed out, they could function well as #2 but they didn't have what it took to be #1.
Hillary has never been #1 until now. Sure, there was pressure, and scrutiny, and criticism, but it was directed at her husband, not at her. NOW she's on the line and she can't take it.
Ed Muskie and Gary Hart were both blown out of the running when they cried during the NH primary. Hillary is being given a pass because of her gender.
We NEED a long, exhausting, frustrating primary season - it separates those who can take it from those who can't. She can't. I hope the voters figure that out.