I get teary-eyed too when I think about how messed up this country is. The economy, health care, and a whole lot of other stuff is totally screwed up.

George Bush (both), Bill Clinton, LBJ, Ronald Reagan* all got emotional and teary-eyed during speeches or other things during their time in the spotlight. No one called them "nut cases" or whatever so until men are held to the same standard as women in this and other elections, I call bullshit on the media for perpetuating a negative stereotype. You can't bring the country together while simultaneously telling women that we are less-than.

I will give Obama big credit for taking the high road when asked about Hillary's response yesterday. He showed a lot of class. John Edwards on the other hand is a total opportunist jackass. I suppose he never gets emotional - I mean, he's just running for the presidency while his wife is dying. No big woop, right?

*I'm sure there are more presidents.

I don't think she was faking at all there. And yes BMD, I absolutely recall Bill Clinton, Reagan, etc. tearing up without the withering criticism.

There is definitely a mean-spirited sexism behind a lot of the coverage of Hillary Clinton that I find repulsive - but I am still Team Obama all day long…

BMD said: "so until men are held to the same standard as women in this and other elections, I call bullshit on the media for perpetuating a negative stereotype. "

I concur. Why is it that the media feels the need to mention what she's wearing at a campaign function? They act as if she's walking the red carpet or something.

I agree. While I am also Team Obama, I consider Hilary Clinton to be a role model. An imperfect role model, but someone to emulate nonetheless. I think it's ridiculous that her comments were deemed emotional when if obama, or edwards or richardson delivered them, they would be viewed as passionate. as though her "emotional" response to the questions somehow indicates that she is ill-eqipped to be president and will respond and deal with national and international problems based on her emotions rather than measured thought. please! i think that we are all aware, h. clinton-supporter or not, that hillary is an extremely rational thinker with a formidable intellect. definitely more rational and less emotional than her husband, and maybe more so than obama and edwards. like i said, i want obama to win, but i would hate to see hillary's numbers plummett because of this. i guess it would mean that the country isn't ready for a female president.

I gotta disagree with you on this one. Hillary has made a crusade of showing how tough she is. She's promoted herself as the second coming of Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady. She's worked overtime to convince the American public that a woman won't falter when the situation gets tough. And then…. she cries?

She knows better than anyone else on the planet that men don't appreciate weakness in women when they ask for an equal playing field. Every professional woman in this country knows that crying in a public forum is an unforgivable sin. And female lawyers are told in law school "Suck it up! If you gotta lose it, lose it in the ladies room!" And the ballsy-est broad on the field decides that after majorly losing in Iowa and facing a massive loss in New Hampshire that this is a good time to get emotional? I'm not buying it. Either she's weaker than previously presented, in which case, she's not ready for prime time OR it's an act, in which case she doesn't deserve prime time.

Either way, she loses my vote.

She didn't cry. And what an up hill battle it will be for any woman - in any walk of life - if we can't even count on our own to work to change the "unforgivable sin" of having human emotions. Men can be human. Women have to be super human? I'm so disappointed and saddened by that given the amount of time in my life I have devoted to women's issues.

Yeap, women have to be superhuman. So do black folks. Haven't you heard? We have to work twice as hard to be considered half as good.

And I'd forgive her if she had teared up over Benazir Bhutto's death or something major. I don't begrudge her the right to be human. But this? No pass. I expect better from her.

"Haven’t you heard?"

Yea, being a BLACK WOMAN myself I've heard it all.

Lots of politicians have shed tears over less important sh*t. Her own husband shed the I'm-sorry-I-got-caught tears, one of several times I've seen him cry or get teared up.

I'm really not one to cry. I remember last year, I had exams, I was working out, sleep deprived, running on caffeine and very emotionally numb. When I'm overwhelmed, I turn off my emotions and just think "I don't have the time or energy to get upset, so keep it moving." A Dove ad (which I think are BS since their parent company also makes the skin bleach to "fix" all those un-pale Indian girls) came on and I got all teary eyed. You can be a soldier and all, but you don't know when you've hit your max and all that ish is just going to catch up with you. I assumed it'd happened. She did the Super Woman Soldier thing after the hostage situation at her HQ. I knew it was only a matter of time until she'd have a breakdown. I really don't picture her going home and having that breakdown with her man, so unfortunately, it came out at an inopportune moment. Keep your head up.

As for her being an imperfect role model, all role models are imperfect. If you view any as perfect, either you've got your head in the sand or they will eventually disappoint you. I have a pretty long list of women and men I consider to be my role models. None are politicians, but I could outline all their faults that I know of.

I think its the same feeling we get when black celebs act a fool in public. We don't want them embarrassing us or showing us as being "less than". I just wish the Feminazis would get off her back. She's human, for goodness sake.
hairsmystory.com

It is a double standard for women especially in the professional world. One feels that you can't show emotion because in part you're trying to be on level with males and not seen as weak. I don't hold the tears against Hills, however even in her 'human' moment, it was all about her and how 'personal' this was rather than the people she's trying to be a leader of. That took away a bit of feeling and just made it more theatrical/calculated.

I think it was scripted, but it doesn't really matter if it was sincere or not. What matters is that the job requires an extraordinary mindset coupled with the charisma to lead. She lacks that combination, in my opinion.

I think it is perfectly fine to be human and show emotions and if I thought Clinton was sincere, I would sympathize. However, I'm not buying these tears. It just didn't seem sincere to me. Yes, men have done the whole cry thing insincerely and I think that's lame too. Fake crying for votes is insulting, male or female and she should not get a pass for fake crying just because she's a woman. I do think she's getting the benefit of the doubt with some folks because it seems fitting for a woman to have a "moment" in public. But fake is fake and that didn't seem genuine to me.

Yeah I agree Demetria. It seems that people want to make Hilary's "performance" an example of how unfairly treated women are in the world and that it was proper for her to let all of this frustration and pain out in a public display. While I say I appreciate the sentiment, it is sentimental bullcrap!

We know the job of running for President is difficult, that is why only a few people every four years runs. We know how tasking and demanding it is….but you know what really shows strength…being strong and together throughout and not breaking down in the middle of it. She is looking to be the leader of our country. She has to always show poise,strength and patience at all times…it is what this job requires. So I don't want to hear how this was in her right because as the saying goes "just because it can be done, does not mean it should be done."

Khia213 said it perfectly, either she is faking or it was a true moment of emotional distress…either way she lose my vote!!

"Emotional distress" is overstating it. From the tone of your post I doubt she ever had your vote to begin with so I don't think it's much of a loss, right?

Get up off a sistuh. Stop micro analyzing every blink. She's both a politician and a human so we can expect a little of both. With all the serious issues at stake I love the way folks allow the media to have us paying this any attention at all. (No comments about my participation! lol) Look, this race is young. If we're gonna start zeroing in on every eyelash, why don't we just tune into Romper Room right now and be the juvenile little kids that we are.
LEAVE HILLARY ALONE NOW! ;-p

Co-sign with last two. This was not scripted because I know she KNOWS people would be on her a– about it. Women are not allowed to show emotion. She can't even look too pissed when people are trashing her because if she gets angry (like ALL the other candidates do when rebutting others), she's "irrational" but when any and all of the other candidates do it, they're "passionate." All the haters and feminazis hanging their head in shame can suck it.

This former exec spoke to my class once. She said that as a boss, we as women could NEVER yell at employees because then you're labeled an unstable b—- with an anger problem. I've never worked for a man, but apparently, yelling is de rigeur for them.

http://gorgeousblackwomen.blogspot.com/

Daria of course it was scripted because look at what a lot of people are doing. They are responding to this as a woman's issue. Your post and the one before both focused on a mistreating of women and that misses the point. The point is that a Presidential candidate nearly came to tears while answering a question. What would we be saying if George Bush did this while being grilled on Irag. Would we call it a great humanizing moment for him or that it showed how unfairly hard people in this country had been on him…I seriously doubt it.

Let's not forget the Clintons are brilliant politicians. They know what works. Daria you say this could not have been scripted because she KNOWS the flack it would have gotten..but I don't see much flack. I see people saying they like her more now, or they understand her pain. So scripted?….a strategy?….of course and it worked.

George Bush got teary-eyed after 9-11 on TV in front of millions of people. And it WAS called a great humanizing moment. Seriously. Look it up. People thought his response (sitting by reading My Pet Goat, remember that?) was lame and showed weakness. He responded by getting teary-eyed over the loss of 3000 people, which his party (and it's savior Ronald Reagan) responsible for - by the way, but no one gave him any shit for it. Now THAT is political theater at it's finest. Choking up over what you want to do for the country - not so much.

I do agree with you that the Clintons are brilliant politicians. They are brilliant people period actually.

Blackmistressdiva…..But that was an entirely different situation. That was a devastating and catastrophic event that many of us could not even imagine ever happening….his tears at that moment in time were expected…maybe even required. But we are now talking about someone who got misty over a CAMPAIGN. Not a tragic moment in our history, but during a CAMPAIGN question and answer session. These are two way different situations and in one the tears can be seen as valid and the other they can be seen as not!

"many of us could not even imagine ever happening" Except the man tearing up of course. Crying over people whose deaths you could have prevented (and probably knew about prior) can't be seen as valid at all. It pales in comparison to a candidate getting passionate on a campaign stop. John Edwards has welled up, too, when talking about his daddy the coal miner. Still, we give them all the benefit of the doubt - b/c they aren't wearing a bra, I guess. LMAO.

You and I could disagree until the end of time and the list is long of presidents who have cried w/o having their balls (qualifications) called into question. We'll agree to disagree. Good bantering with you though.

I will be the first to admit that portions of Dowd’s column are crude and sexist, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that her argument, however crudely presented, is dead on correct.

Please don’t get me wrong I am all for personal emotion and compassion in politics. I think that if our politicians were more emotionally connected to the people that are actually effected by the decisions they make, instead of being connected to special interests and the accumulation of even greater power, that our country and our governmental policy would be in a much better state. I completely and whole-heartedly support honest outpourings of emotion in politics, and I think every politician could use a whole lot more emotional attachment to the issues.

I would even have felt some empathy for Hillary Clinton and her outpouring of emotion if I for one second thought it was remotely genuine, but the fact is I don’t.

At best the only genuine outpouring of emotion that was demonstrated in this small New Hampshire café last Sunday was simply a self-realizing act on the part of Hillary Clinton that her dreams of power may soon be over. Add to this a good amount of self-pity and you have all the ingredients you need for a good tearjerker accompanied with some coffee and a crowd of people.

At worst it was a calculated act on the part of the very skilled Clinton political machine.

Where was this emotion when she enabled the president to carry out an unjust and illegal war in Iraq that thus far has resulted in the deaths of 3,921 American service men and women, as well as the death and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians?

Where was this emotion as she vehemently defended this decision on the campaign trail?

Where was this emotion as she spouted her hawkish rhetoric towards Iran, which may lead to even greater death, destruction and heartache in the Middle East?

Where was this emotion during the summer of 2006 as she vehemently supported Israel’s right to perform whatever atrocities they wished on the Lebanese people, including the utilization of cluster munitions on women and children?

Hillary Clinton is a politician who strives on making politically calculated and convenient decisions, even when those decisions relate to such important issues as War & Peace and Life & Death. So I am sorry Hillary that I don’t buy for one minute that your little emotional breakdown was related to anything besides your own political self-interest.

By the way Hillary, since your little tearjerker on Sunday nine more U.S. service personal have died in YOUR Iraq war. Maybe next time you will show a little emotion and cry about that, just make sure that it takes place at a politically convenient time while the cameras are rolling.

Nicely done. I'm crying right now. Sounds like the talking points I've heard at Moveon.org meetings. If only such venom was directed at Bush - because it's HIS war and there was no stopping him - maybe we could impeach him.

I'm gonna have to roll with Khia213 & Anti-Everything. You guys took the words right outta my mouth. Props.