Damn they're good!
YES...I will go there. I think the issue of sincerity, genuineness and political calculation seems to have gotten lost, especially in the diary about Jesse Jackson Jr.’s comments. Issues of gender and sexism are relevant in that they may have been manipulated to meet the Clinton’s political goals. I have no problem with anyone, man or woman, crying. My ex-Marine father cried frequently and I never looked at him as less of a man for it. My boss, a woman partner in a prestigious law firm has teared up a few times and I never lost professional respect for her. But when Hillary teared up on Monday morning discussing the campaign, I wasn’t sure if I should empathize with her in her brief moment of distress or congratulate her and Bill for yet another BRILLIANT political move.
We’ve all heard about the notorious planted questions during the Nevada debate last fall and the indirect cocaine and drug dealing references. The Clintons are consumate politicians, nothing they do is without some calculation and they are at their best when their backs are against the wall. Several times over the years I've seen them near political death and they managed to pull a miracle out of their asses to bring themselves back to life. They’ve been strategizing for days on how to stop Obama’s momentum. It was crunch time and they had to do something.
I recall during the time of impeachment eight years ago when the Republican Congress decided to air Bill’s depositions on national television. What the country saw was a couple of arrogant prosecutors probing a battered president. It backfired on them. The public was outraged and Bill won huge sympathy points.
Did Bill get a few ideas from that experience? Was that question to Hillary on Monday morning planted? If not planted, then was it their plan that morning for Hillary to find some opportunity to get emotional? The country had just seen her being tag teamed by two men on Saturday night’s debate. The tag teaming in and of itself was legitimate debating and didn’t seem move poll numbers. However, in tandem with Hillary’s tears and the press overplaying it, and with Bill telling an audience that he wishes he could make Hillary "thinner, younger, taller and male." All of a sudden there is the appearance of a wronged woman being piled on. Did they possibly stage the tears knowing that the press would then replay it a thousand times over and get out of hand with it? Most people seem to give Hillary the benefit of the doubt. On Tuesday night I was left thinking to myself: "Damn they’re good!"