Vulnerability isn’t a bad trait in a Presidential candidate. After all, Bill Clinton’s emotional bite on the his lip didn’t hurt him and President George Bush’s eyes have misted up at times.

But earlier this week former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney seemingly entered The Danger Zone by generating two reports in several days time about his eyes misting up on TV. Warning to Romney: You are in danger of being typecast. Unless you’re trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records, turn off the waterworks now or it’ll become a media theme and a punchline for late night comics (once they get back on the air after settling the writers strike mess).

Romney first misted up when recalling how he felt when he heard his LDS Church admitted blacks to the priesthood in 1978. And, then, a day later, he misted up when he talked about how he felt in seeing a casket of a fallen soldier killed in Iraq and imagining it could have been one of his sons.

Fortunately for Romney, his two eye-mistings in two days happened when Jay Leno and David Lettermen were in re-runs due to the writers’ strike. And there is a larger political danger.

The danger is that politicians, cable talk shows, radio hosts and the media (which includes blogs such as this) all type-cast. And it won’t help Romney’s image in a time when Rudy Giuliani is running around the country, jutting his chin out and beating his chest proclaiming that he going to be tougher on terrorism than the Democrats for the former Massachusetts Governor to be perceived as someone courting the tear-duct vote.

Just many Dr. Phil voters are there out there, anyway?

Still, the AP notes that crying isn’t always a handicap these days — for men, at least:

But for a candidate who sometimes comes across as cool and detached, showing a little emotion may not be something to cry about.

The nation has come a long way in the 35 years since a New Hampshire sob story ended Sen. Edmund Muskie’s 1972 presidential campaign. Muskie’s campaign slid off the tracks after it was reported that he had cried in response to a newspaper attack on his wife. He went to his grave maintaining that it had been melted snowflakes, not a tear, in his eye.

Fifteen years later, in 1987, former Democratic Rep. Pat Schroeder got grief for crying as she announced that she would not be a presidential candidate. She’s still catching flak about it today, mostly from women….

“Oh, my gosh, I got a devastating e-mail about it from a woman writer just a couple of days ago,” Schroeder said in an interview. “I want to say, ‘Wait a minute, we are talking 20 years ago.’ It’s like I ruined their lives, 20 years ago, with three seconds of catching my breath.”

Schroeder says she used to keep a “crying file” on weepy politician episodes, but it got so huge she threw it out.

“Guys have been tearing up all along and people think it’s marvelous,” Schroeder said, pointing to episodes stretching back to Ronald Reagan.

But for female candidates, crying clearly is still in the no-fly zone. Hillary Rodham Clinton is not allowed to cry. At least not in public.

David Knowles has looked at Romney’s teariness and raised an eyebrow:

Of course, one might not be so cynical about Romney’s tears were it not for one of his now-famous PowerPoint presentations back in February. In it, Romney laid out his battle plan to win the nomination. Included in the 77-slide document was, among other things, a push for Romney to deliver his JFK-Mormon speech at the Bush library, and an admission that Mitt’s hair might be “too perfect.” Humanizing Romney has been on the campaign’s radar screen (not to mention its PowerPoint screen) for a while.

(Read comments under that post, by the way. Romney’s supporters insist he really didn’t cry. if so, they need to contact the news agencies and have them correct all the news reports about the incidents…)

But in these days when Hollywood, the mainstream news media, and bloggers all deal in “high concept” easy to understand instant-images, Romney’s wet eyes could prove to be a problem.

Note the reaction of Right Wing News’ John Hawkins:

How many times is Mitt Romney going to cry in public? Moreover, why is he blubbering so much now? Did some focus group conclude that he needs to come across more like a girlish metrosexual? Is he having an emotional breakdown? Is the poor dear just too much of a sensitive soul to be President?

PS: Bonus question — will he cry again if he loses Iowa to Huckabee?

PS #2: Crying like a little girl in public ruined Ed Muskie’s campaign back in 1972. Now, Romney has gotten all emotional twice in as many days. Whimpering like a little wussy in public doesn’t exactly engender confidence that Romney has what it takes to be President of the United States.

PS #3: The fact that Romney got so upset over a question about his church is particularly disturbing because he is going to get those questions over and over again if he’s the nominee. So how many times would this guy end up crying his eyes out by the end of 2008?

If Romney doesn’t watch it, he may wind up with THIS as his new campaign song: