Since the Iowa caucus Hillary Clinton has maybe had twelve hours of sleep, a few moments of privacy and I doubt anytime to just vent. I’m a born venter. It’s what I do best and I have very little to vent about. Hillary Clinton meanwhile finished third in the Iowa caucus (forever losing her air of inevitability) and according to some polls has fallen ten points behind Barack Obama in New Hampshire. No wonder she almost lost it today.
Pundits have been writing the Senator’s political obituary ever since her third place finish last Thursday night, which came as a shock to both the media and her campaign. So today when Hillary Clinton held back tears and her voice broke during a question and answer session in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her.
Yesterday evening I arrived at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, New Hampshire at 4:30 for a Hillary Clinton event that was scheduled to start at 5:00. There were people lined up around the building waiting in the cold while the secret service and their dogs sniffed the gymnasium for bombs and anti-abortion activists. Of course the press was allowed in because if they were blown up the Hillary camp would probably be relieved.
The crowd piled in at 5:00 with no sign of the Senator. An entertaining campaign staffer came on the stage to keep the up the energy of the crowd. He played a Hillary trivia game asking questions like “what state was Senator Clinton first lady of?” If my memory serves me right, I think the first person that was called on said New York; they still got a t-shirt.
By the time Hillary arrived at 6:30, the crowd was still excited to see her; just not anxious to hear everything she had to say. After about 45 minutes, people were filing out of the room even though she was in the middle of her question and answer however everyone I spoke to said they were still voting for the Senator, they were just tired of standing.
There are ardent Hillary supporters in New Hampshire, people who are completely unaffected by her loss in Iowa and would stand outside an Obama event in the freezing cold with buttons and signs screaming at the top of their lungs in support of HRC (as they refer to Hillary Rodham Clinton). At the rally yesterday, there were tons of parents who brought their young daughters to see the “first woman president.” One mother I spoke to said “I support Hillary because of my daughter,” another said, “it’s time we have a woman. We need a woman so that my daughter can follow in her footsteps.” These are the heart of Hillary’s support in the Granite State but more and more are becoming susceptible to the hope cult that Obama professes.
On Fox News tonight they questioned if her emotional moment was a ploy to make her seem more human. While I don’t agree with the criticism, I understand it. I think a lot of people will be questioning how presidential emotion is in the next few hours as people head to the polls here in this “Live Free or Die” state. I think that when you’re dying it’s only human to get a little ferklempt.
2 comments:
To be fair, some of the Fox analysts believed her emotion was sincere; others (especially those who had covered Bill for some time) doubted it.
I thought the moment was neither genuine nor completely posed - Hillary is surely exhausted and deeply emotionally committed to what she's doing, but letting those tears bubble up through her hardened exterior was almost certainly somewhat calculated. I mean, I don't think "get teary" was on her agenda for the day, but spending time around politicians like we all do, you just know that they don't let down those walls unless you're doing so consciously. I'm sure, in the moment, she decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to let some humanity show.
That said, as a ardent member of the anyone-but-Hillary camp, I think a rather oppurtunistic display of self-pity makes her no better qualified to be President ;)
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