Monday, January 7, 2008
Hillary's Tears
The above video shows Hillary Clinton near tears, talking today about her campaign in New Hampshire.
More than a few people have been snickering about this. In the comments attached to the above YouTube video, some graceless person said Hillary's tears are crocodile.
You know what? It must be exhausting beyond comprehension to put yourself out there and run for President.
And I want a President who is a human being, not a robot. Tears are human. There's nothing wrong in the slightest for either a woman or a man to cry. In fact, there's usually a lot right with it.
So, although I plan on voting for Barack Obama in the New York primary, I'm glad to see that Hillary Clinton is in this race, and fighting with all of her heart.
And for those of her enemies who take some solace or pleasure in Hillary's tears, because they're glad to see what they think is her weakness? Well, you people are not only not fit to be President, you're barely fit to be human.
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3 comments:
I wanted to stay silent on this one, because who doesn't shed a tear. BUT, we are talking about the most important and powerful person in the World.
How do you think it would help her manage this list of stakeholders?
http://www.richfulllife.ca/my_weblog/2008/01/hillary-thinks.html
I don't know, maybe you should have stayed silent ....:)
Only joking - I welcome just about every kind of commentary and opinion here in Infinite Regress.
But I do utterly disagree with you. What's the big deal if a person gets teary during a crisis? It's really no different than cursing, pointing your finger, or any number of emotional responses. As long as they don't interfere with rational discourse - which none of these do - I see no problem.
As I said in my blog post, we're not machines.
As I also indicated, I like Obama more than Hillary - but the near tears have zero to do with that.
I think Hillary's tears were refreshing. They put a human face on an otherwise steely campaigner.
To be honest, until now, I couldn't relate with the senator. She seemed too analytical and too dispassionate – like too much of a politician.
As affective states go, I was frequently unable to detect empathy in her self-expression, and almost always unable to detect connectedness. I recall an NPR report that followed her into an Iowa diner where she attempted to "connect" with a waitress and single mother. The woman was asked, after the senator's departure, if she felt Hillary "got it."
"I don't think she understood at all what I was saying," the woman shot back.
Heck, nobody got left a tip!
I suspect it's that image of a disconnected lady of the realm that cost her Iowa.
So, it's nice to see Hillary shed that Iron Maiden impression, if only for a few seconds. I agree; presidential candidates shouldn't be robots. They ought to build relationships with the people they seek to represent. And in order to truly build relationships, they ought to open up. Even cry a little.
Candid emotional displays, in the end, are beautifully and endearingly human.
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