Like many of you, I watched Leslie Stahl's interview with soon-to-be Speaker of the House John Boehner in complete astonishment, because while I have heard mention of his predisposition for crying in public, I had never actually seen him do so -- and with so little provocation! This wasn't a case where something came from out of the blue and slipped past his guard. This wasn't a setup. 60 Minutes was doing a fluffy biography piece on him and asked him all the sort of background questions you'd have expected them to ask. His guard should have been up, but he bawled like a little kid nonetheless.
And I think I should say here that I have no problem with a grown man being overly sentimental, or crying occasionally in public. But I do have a problem when the man in question is about to become the Speaker of the House. Although it makes me wonder if he sometimes uses his tears to get people to do what he wants (see the video.)
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Speaker Boehner is about to become second in line of succession to the Presidency. And with our nation engaged in two wars and what looks to be a never-ending war with Islamic Terrorists, you'd be foolish to think that there is not a very real chance that John Boehner could one day find himself in an emergency situation taking the oath of office. In which case we'd have a man in the Oval Office who can't control him emotions. All you have to do is mention the "American Dream" to him and his eyes start to water and his voice chokes up. And as President of the United States he'd be called upon to handle an enormous number of very emotional duties -- like visiting with wounded service men and women, as well as the loved ones of the departed. And how would it look if he started to cry during the State of the Union?
And so my big question here is: where is the mainstream media on this story. Sure, I've seen a few articles here and there discussing his weepiness, but nothing like what we saw when Howard Dean got a little riled up on camera back in 2004 -- and nothing even close to what we would have seen if Nancy Pelosi ever gave into tears the way Boehner does. And if she had wept on the floor of the House the way Boehner has done, FoxNews would have started covering the event 24/7 and hounded here until she was forced to step down. This is the biggest and most outrageous example of a double standard for men and women that I've ever seen in the realm of politics.
Is John Boehner emotionally stable enough to be Speaker of the House and potentially President of the United States? I think this issue needs to be addressed in a serious manner by the major news outlets of the country -- including The Wall Street Journal and FoxNews.