Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, a crucial primary. Polls show Hillary Clinton neck-and-neck with Senator Barack Obama in many states and nationally. And now this story will make some wonder: “Hey, is it re-run season already?”
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Sen. Hillary Clinton teared up this morning at an event at the Yale Child Study Center, where she worked while in law school in the early 1970s.
Penn Rhodeen, who was introducing Clinton, began to choke up, leading Clinton’s eyes to fill with tears, which she wiped out of her left eye. At the time, Rhodeen was saying how proud he was that sheepskin-coat, bell-bottom-wearing young woman he met in 1972 was now running for president.
“Well, I said I would not tear up; already we’re not exactly on the path,” Clinton said with emotion after
the introduction.Clinton is holding a roundtable discussion with Connecticut women to talk about childcare and healthcare.
When Clinton got misty-eyed at an event in New Hampshire on Jan. 7, politicos and pundits filled hours discussing if it helped her, and Clinton eventually pointed to the moment as when she “found her voice” and turned the corner in the Granite State.
Last time this happened on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, which polls showed she was likely to lose, some felt it tipped the scales at the last minute. And it had sparked a discussion: Did she really cry…How could you be so crass to suggest it was false!?…But Hillary and Bill are manipulative!…No, it was genuine!…No it was manipulated!…You only say that because you support Hillary!…You only say that because you’re a Hillary hater!..
But no matter what the discussion, sincere tears or not, in political terms, experts say it had a political impact.
No conclusions are drawn here (frankly, it does sound genuine and logical, and although the timing is interesting the context of her emotion is different since it was someone noting how far she has journeyed in her life) but CLICK HERE to check what other weblogs are saying.
Expect a controversy to even pop up about whether she really brushed back a tear, really cried. The bottom line is that it will be in the news cycle — but unless there is video, it’s unlikely to have the same impact.
Or will it? (We question…YOU decide…and the votes confirm or don’t confirm…)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.