Heads up. Sen. Clinton may have had another *emotional* moment today.

Okay. I just saw the Hillary clip where she tears up a bit. My gut reaction...
Posted by Emit on Tue Jan-08-08 12:27 AM

...for what it's worth.

My first thought was ... Edwards. She was emulating Edwards. Edwards, during the debate, brought the cause to a personal level for himself. I can't recall his specific words, but it was when he was talking about the personal nature of his lifelong work, fighting against powerful insurance companies and special interests. This resonates with voters, and some of the criticism that Clinton has had following Iowa and this NH debate is that she was going on about herself -- her 35 years of experience -- and not talking about the voters like Edwards and Obama were.

I don't think she intended to become tearful to manipulate voters or the media -- I think, though, that that was a byproduct of her getting personal because she's tired and stressed -- and it's not her usual message. It's very hard to try to be in control all the time and then let yourself be vulnerable to personal emotion. It's also hard to cry on demand unless you're a seasoned actor, and despite her public persona, I don't think that's her forte. So, I think the choking up was for real, not pretend.

I think someone in her camp, or herself even, realized that she needed to add something personal to her message - something the voters can get impassioned about enough to want to vote for her. The Hillary camp can't be so naive as to not see that a lot of the grassroots enthusiasm that propels the Obama and Edwards campaigns is their reaching out personally and connecting to would be voters. To bring it to a personal level as a reason for fight instills some sort of passion, which seems to be lacking in Hillary and her supporters thus far, IMHO. Makes her less status quo, in a sense, too.



Thoughts?