The Tears of a Candidate

My love-hate relationship with the media continues unabated. Remember long, long ago - in yesterday’s papers? Hillary Clinton was portrayed as having a meltdown when asked how she was holding up on the campaign trail. (Now remember - the presidential candidates are working 16 hour days on average.)  Hillary’s voice broke. She fought back tears. She said it was taking its toll.

 

POUNCE! The media descended on her like flies on a cow pat. “Hillary’s Meltdown!” cried one. “Candidate in Crisis” said another newspaper. She was seen as a loser flailing in the wake of Barrack Obama and her race to the White House was all but over.

They say a week is a long time in politics. But in today’s news environment a day is a decade. 

Today Hillary is “back on track” and she’s “the comeback kid.” (For those living in the deepest caves of Cooper Pedy she won the New Hampshire primary - now get back to opal mining, you louts.) 

And that “meltdown?” That’s the “real moment” when voters could see her as a person. The connection was “profound and emotional.” Women voters flocked back. 

So now the carnage begins - advisers are being changed and we can expect to see a lot more of the personal side of Hillary. I’m not quite sure what that means. After healthcare reforms failed in the early 1990s we didn’t get cookie recipes from her. Do we get to go shopping together? Can we talk about raising kids? Will she go on the couch with Dr Phil and talk about adultery?

Here’s the question of the day: When Hillary Clinton’s campaign says we can see a lot more of her as a person, what do they mean? 

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2 Comments »

Milorad Ivovic wrote @ January 9th, 2008 at 11:23 pm

Obviously the media doesn’t know us very well… and how could it? There haven’t been very many female presidential candidates before.

They thought the public would apply the same standards to her that they would to a male candidate, and they were wrong.

They might have been right in Thatcher’s day, but I think its becoming more obvious that people these days want a female candidate at least partly because she’s a woman, not in spite of that.

PR Consultant wrote @ January 10th, 2008 at 10:06 pm

Wow - she showed some emotion - Once!

She really cares - Obviously!

I share your frustration with the media but I despair if people’s voting intentions are changing on the on the basis of that single event (with or without the intervention of the media).

America/The World needs change - not the return of Team Clinton.

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