There's No Crying in Politics

Now back from the holidays, Lenore is taking on the issue of Hillary Clinton and her recent crying jag. Is all the controversy because she's a woman? Or because she reminds people of their demanding mother, and people just don't want to cop to this? Well, here was my response...
First, I think you're dead wrong. People are MORE than willing to cop to their prejudice against older, female, empowered public figures who want to be President of the United States. In fact, people love to hate'em and are more than willing to say so in blogs, in 7-second soundbites on the CBS EVENING NEWS, in specially created MYSPACE pages and by aspiring Spielbergs on YOUTUBE. Unless you're 20something and subscribe to WIRED magazine, you're fair game. "Don't trust anyone over 30, especially if they're running for political office," should be the saying. However, I debate whether the public reaction to this whole Hillary-crying thing is somehow misogynistic...misogynetic?...I like Miso soup...um, against women. Remember all the hoohah about Edmund Muskie's waterworks back in the Reagan years? Got him booted right out of politics. Male, female, doesn't matter. It's like that line from A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: "Are you crying?" Tom Hanks' character asks one of his girl-ballplayers. "There's no crying in baseball!" Or in politics. Crying means you are weak, or worse yet, swayed by your emotions which, as we know, is a bad thing to be when you've got access to that little black briefcase with the big red nuclear-exchange-Armageddon button. That makes voters...nervous. Anyway, as a PR professional of 24 years, I can say that I think Hillary's problem isn't that she reminds people of their Mom or that she's a woman or that she cried or that she's old...or older. It's that she's not genuine. There's something very ORCHESTRATED about her...these interviews where she tries just a little too hard to loosen up. It's like, hey, I'm a woman, I'm okay with laughing and crying and being in touch with my feelings but at the same time, being a disciplined, hard working professional, so take notice, I'm a human being but I can get the job done and I have real emotions and you should appreciate all this about me because it means I'm a good, normal person who is worthy of your vote. It's just a bit, well, FAKE. One senses she just wants all the CRAP that's involved with becoming President--having to actually TALK to people and coo at babies--to get the $**%#@ over with so she can claim her birthright to the American Throne, I mean, Presidency. Obama on the otherhand, comes off, if anything, as GENUINE. And people like that. As the late great George Burns once quipped, "Sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you got it made." Hillary needs sincerity lessons. And so it goes...
As for me, well, if I had a bumper sticker it would say, "DON'T BLAME ME, I VOTED FOR MICHAEL BEDNARIK." And if you know who he is, you win a cookie.