Tuesday, January 8, 2008
P.S. re HRC tears
I suppose Hillary thought tears and vulnerability would appeal to some and make her look real and feminine. Perhaps she was right. But they lost her much more. And I can't believe they were real tears.
If the tears were real, she shouldn't be president. How could a president succeed who was so delicate that as to cry when asked about keeping a busy schedule?? How much would she sob, then, if told a foreign dignitary didn't like her? Or if a cabinet member disagreed with her policies? Or if another country's leader called the U.S. names and declared war? Or if a nuclear missile was en route to the U.S.?
Those tears, whether deliberate or not, are deeply scary. A president of any sex or color or size or any other attribute must be tough and rigorous enough to handle situations and people that/who are powerful, threatening and unsettling. It is not a good thing to be so emotionally delicate that tears result from a question about her endurance and energy (the question was about how she keeps her hair neat and tidy in the crazy fray of a political campaign). Can you imagine Romney welling up if asked how he keeps his hair so tidy? Or McCain if asked how he's kept in such good shape? And tears were what got Edmund Muskie the exit hook a few years ago although at least his resulted from Nixonian evildoing rather than a silly personal question. Hillary has molder herself into a robotic, calculating, unassailably political machine and calculator extraordinaire of voter reactions; she can't have it both ways, for one thing, but even more importantly she completely miscalculated this one.
If the tears were real, she shouldn't be president. How could a president succeed who was so delicate that as to cry when asked about keeping a busy schedule?? How much would she sob, then, if told a foreign dignitary didn't like her? Or if a cabinet member disagreed with her policies? Or if another country's leader called the U.S. names and declared war? Or if a nuclear missile was en route to the U.S.?
Those tears, whether deliberate or not, are deeply scary. A president of any sex or color or size or any other attribute must be tough and rigorous enough to handle situations and people that/who are powerful, threatening and unsettling. It is not a good thing to be so emotionally delicate that tears result from a question about her endurance and energy (the question was about how she keeps her hair neat and tidy in the crazy fray of a political campaign). Can you imagine Romney welling up if asked how he keeps his hair so tidy? Or McCain if asked how he's kept in such good shape? And tears were what got Edmund Muskie the exit hook a few years ago although at least his resulted from Nixonian evildoing rather than a silly personal question. Hillary has molder herself into a robotic, calculating, unassailably political machine and calculator extraordinaire of voter reactions; she can't have it both ways, for one thing, but even more importantly she completely miscalculated this one.
Labels: 2008 election, headlines
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