Tears and jeers on the campaign trail

January 9th, 2008 at 07:07pm Andrea Zimmermann

How much did Hillary Clinton’s teary Monday morning coffee break really mean to New Hampshire voters?

This question is reverberating around the nation today from watercoolers to pundits in both print and broadcast to the average citizen on the street. People are trying to comprehend how Clinton overcame seriously damaging polling projections on the day before the New Hampshire primary to claim a victory Tuesday.

Naturally, Clinton supporters, and even Clinton herself, have begun a whirlwind media tour to insist the former first lady’s emotions were genuine.

“I actually have emotions,” she told CNN’s John Roberts on a damage-control tour. “I know that there are some people who doubt that.” She went on “Access Hollywood” to talk about, as the show put it, “the double standards that a woman running for president faces.” “If you get too emotional, that undercuts you,” Hillary said. “A man can cry; we know that. Lots of our leaders have cried. But a woman, it’s a different kind of dynamic.”

Clinton supporters are also saying Saturday night’s debate was the turning point, not the Moment, as some are calling it.

In the Boston Globe, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, in a conference call with reporters backed Clinton, whom she is also supporting.

“I think it showed humanity and real warmth,” she said. “I mean, this was Hillary at her core…I think that feeling coming out is really, really important because we all identify with it, and we understand the frustrations of these campaigns and all the knocks that you get.”

“And she does have a steel spine, no one should ever doubt that,” Feinstein continued. “This is one strong woman. But I think for people to be able to see the basic Hillary with the basic feelings was very important.”

Columnist Maureen Dowd of the New York Times penned a piece entitled, “Can Hillary Cry Her Way Back to the White House?” In it she pontificated about whether Clinton has become our very own “Lifetime” movie heroine when she talked during Tuesday’s victory speech about finding her voice.

Perhaps she really is our “Lifetime” heroine:

“Obviously we know what people will say, but maybe I have liberated us to actually let women be human beings in public life.”

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized