Hillary Clinton bursts into tears, stunned at her own Herculean ability to keep campaigning. Edwards comes out cockswinging:
I think what we need in a commander-in-chief is strength and resolve, and presidential campaigns are tough business, but being president of the United States is also tough business.
Successful male politicians, of course, never cry. Here’s George W displaying a stunning lack of resolve. Here’s his dad falling apart over Jeb. Here’s the other Clinton conveniently welling up as he spots a camera. Romney cries; brags about crying here.
A Hit & Run commenter, faced with the above examples, concludes: “if any male candidate got all weepy he’d be dropped from consideration out of sheer self-respectability. Hilary can get away with it because ‘well, its not the same’. ”
Nope, not the same! Add to this useful list of the worst jobs in the world: consultant to any candidate with breasts. Show emotion and you’re weak; show strength and you’re a collection of servos. Respond to attacks with emotion and you’re “angry.” Respond with equanimity and you’re cold and distant. Shy from war and you’re too feminine to lead; embrace it and you’re the establishment’s whore. And the worst thing you can do? Acknowledge, in any way, shape, or form, the existence of sexism in these United States.
Just imagine if Hillary were to puke on the Japanese Prime Minister.
Help start war and excuse yourself by saying you were outsmarted by Bush? Get idiots to vote for you!
You don’t suppose it might be that some people don’t like candidates who ask consultants what their personality should be today?
Bravo Kerry! Well said!
I’ve never seen such misplaced vitriol directed at one candidate in my life.
I don’t begrudge anyone opposing Senator Clinton and her policies…but the venomous personal attacks, by people who draw their opinions from pin headed pundits with an obvious axe to grind, are beyond the pale.
For all the Christians running around this country railing for moral restoration, why don’t the one’s spewing their hatred for Hillary demonstrate a scintilla of their supposed beliefs?
Had Jesus lived in these times, he would have met his fate far sooner…and the doubting Thomas’s wouldn’t bother lining up to confirm the hole in his side…they would simply turn on their radio and let Rush Limbaugh tell them what a loser that Jesus character was.
My advice to Hillary Clinton is don’t sweat it…this country isn’t ready to face reality. The fix for what ails us isn’t currently in the cards.
Thanks for your thoughtful posting. It’s refreshing to find others who know the difference between ad hominem hyperbole and basic human decency.
Regards,
Daniel
Debating sexism here would be acknowledging a genuine display of emotion by Hilary.
All I see is RAGE in her eyes. I wouldn’t doubt it if her campaign exhumed Lee Strausberg to aid her in this performance. It rings false. It has nothing to do with the fact that she’s a woman. No one is a bigger phony (or dipshit) than Edwards. One could argue that Romney seems as programmed as Hilary. However, more than any other candidate, Hilary exudes RAGE (even more so than McCain). I also wouldn’t pooh-pooh (or dismiss as right-wing paranoia) the extent of her role in discrediting those who charged her husband with sexual misconduct.
If Hillary puked on the Japanese Prime Minister she should say what H.W. said, “Next time lunch is on me!”
I get what you’re saying, but are you sure that showing how she is like the Bushes and Romney is a good thing?
Ed Muskie won the Iowa & NH primaries and then started weeping about press coverage in ‘72. He was toast in a New-York minute. Bye bye Ed.
Remember Pat Schroeder bawling her eyes out when she couldn’t hack it a few campaigns ago? Ah, how soon we forget…!
I wouldn’t go so far as to label Mitt Romney a “successful politician.”
Actually, you know, I am a huge Barack Obama supporter but I found Hillary’s tears very sympathetic, warm and human. I certainly agree that women in public life are stuck with an impossible bind navigating the narrow turf between “shrew” and “hysteric”. But I don’t really see that happening here, to be honest. I think the press are fascinated by Hillary’s tears not because she is a crying woman but because they were the first crack in the armour facade of polished perfection that she has been putting out there to the public. She’s tired, she’s worked incredibly hard, and she can feel it all slipping away from her. The emotions are all right at the surface, and she holds it in against assaults, but a random moment of sympathy can bring it all out. I totally sympathise – I’ve been there. It sucks.
But it’s not a reason to vote for someone, is it?
The tittering dweebs in the press truly suck but there are better ways of handling their stupidity than treating them seriously when they go into pearl clutching mode. Laugh at them. Not every woman candidate is Ann Richards but a little ‘kiss my grits’, even if it’s inauthentic, is potent kryptonite for the Superdumb media. They see themselves as brilliant so when you make fun of them for being dumb they nervously laugh along — thinking you MUST mean somebody else.
[...] Cry Like a Man, Hillary! Filed under: Uncategorized — cleek @ 8:35 am [...]
great post.
She wasn’t crying, her eyes welled up. But you can feel how everyone wanted her to crack; and if she’d cried she’d be toast right now. But she slipped into an emotional momment and it humanized her, something she desperatly needed. And it hurt John Edwards to come out hard against her like that; especially when you see the video how human the momment was really.
The fact is, through, that the response to her tears are the same reasons she can’t get elected. Half of the people I’ve talked to think they’re faked and the other half think that she’s an elitist snob who was crying for her own losses and note how she pivoted immediatly into an attack on her rivals and claimed they were “wrong” despite having nearly identical proposals and political experience.
I felt bad for the stress she’s apparently under; but she’s flat wrong all the way through. And this didn’t make me like her any better.
All crying is not the same. Crying works best when you’re weeping for the sorrows of other people rather than your own. Listening to her talk as she chokes up, what’s making her sad is the thought that she’s exactly what America needs and, my god, not enough people understand that. Forgive me if I’m not welling up inside because she can’t inspire anyone beyond her hardcore supporters.
It didn’t help was that as she was overcome with emotion, she managed to slip in a standard talking point about Obama being unready for office.
It’s so bizarre, too, because there are plenty of GOOD and FAIR reasons to be against Clinton. That people gravitate to these idiotic and sexist reasons indicates nothing more than the mentalities of these people.
Helter hits it. Hillary “welling up” because people were being mean to her for her lofty idealism is not something that stirs my compassion. My wife has a high-level corporate job that has taught her, despite her feminine inclinations, that it’s not all about how you feel about the inevitable conflicts that come up. With all her “experience,” Hillary hasn’t learned to suck it in crisis? And if you actually listen to what she is saying, it doesn’t make sense. She’s getting Fehrklempt because of how much she wants to help people? Why the day before a big primary and not last May?
So I give her credit for identifying a good tactic to steal a few precious minutes of media time that otherwise would have gone to Barack. She may even be right in thinking it will earn her some sympathy votes. Both her method and her message were bogus to me.
Whether the Hillarybot programmed a few tears into the facial program in order to fish for sympathy votes, or whatever, is completely irrelevant to me. All of the Democratic contenders are intelligent, sane people. That differentiates them from the Republican contenders, who are all, well, batshit crazy. Within the next two weeks I am going to fill out the absentee ballot which arrived in the mail yesterday and turn it in to the registrar of voters. It will have a Democrat marked on it. Next fall, a Democrat will be nominated for President. Next November, I will vote for that nominee. Which of the current candidates it will be… (shrug). Any of them would be 1,000,000,000 times better than the current pResident, so I’m not going to get too uptight about it. Some folks just need to learn how to chill.
- Badtux the “Sanity ‘08 Ticket” Penguin
I’d like to congratulate all the commenters here who’ve managed to prove Kerry’s point for her. *golf clap* Bravo, ya schmucks.
You missed the boat on this one by a mile, Kerry. Look at the election results. The crying helped her. Compare to Ed Muskie’s 1972 meltdown. Sexual double standards cut both ways.
I guess you weren’t watching television last night, John. If you didn’t see any misogyny in the reaction to her tears, you’re determined not to see it.
Then again, “the white man is the Jew of liberal fascism.” So we should all be weeping for Edwards.
It’s My “Party” and I’ll Cry if I Want to!
(The Tearful Hillary Song)
Dr BLT as Beverly Hillarybilly
http://www.drblt.net/music/MyParty.mp3
I didn’t see the video of Clinton until the next day…just reading the headlines and listening to pundits I expected to see a sobbing Clinton. I didn’t even see her eyes get moist!
I cry more than that during Cubs games (but then again there are many reasons for that one).
I wonder if what gained Clinton some extra votes in the end was the fact some people, like me, grow weary of the meme that everything Hillary does is fake, engineered, or manipulative.
I wish I had the power to see into people’s souls like some many others seem to be able to do.
Then again maybe I wouldn’t want that.
I’m coming to this way late, but then again, it ain’t over…
Kerry, I saw you on Redeye for the first time recently (as a new viewer) and you were and are hilarious.
I’m actually tickled pink to see you’re also perspicacious and not afraid of the big scary F-word, or even the S or M-word (I enjoyed the way Redeye joked about not knowing the meaning of “misogynist” recently).
Sadly it’s all too true in the culture at large these days– as you point out, people know how to BE one, just not how to admit it, often even in humor.
Anyway, it’s great to find people who are smart, really funny, who sometimes even disagree, and who can still hang out.
What a revelation!
Love the title of your piece.
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