Intolerable Vulnerability: Inside Hillary’s Tears

By Dan McCarthy on Wed, Jan 9, 2008 10:25 am

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The mainstream press is aglow today in a gooey puddle of approval for the emotional response Hillary Clinton gave at a NH stop yesterday, and I think I may have watched something else than they did. From CBS News.com (“Clinton Finds Emotion on the Trail”) to the Boston Globe (“Clinton Shows Emotion in Final Hours”) and others, the reaction has for the most part been positive; demonstrating that the media (and voters) thirst for seeing any trace of a feeling human being underneath Clinton’s brushed-steel image — a thirst that overpowers the ability to spot acting even if when it’s quivering into a mic.

She answered a question about the brutal toll of campaigning with details of how hard it is, how she couldn’t do it if she didn’t believe it was the right thing to do (as opposed to the candidates running convinced it’s the wrong thing to do), and the personal nature of this campaign, considering “when we look at the array of problems we have, and the potential for it really spinning out of control, this is one of the most important elections America has ever faced”.

Fair enough. But what got her emotional, and where it happened, reeks of the sort of dark plottings advisors and managers are capable of in the twilight hours of a primary election, especially at a time when polls show poor standings, much of which stemming from voters unable to connect on a personal level with the candidate. She’s not the only one running who’s broken down of course. McCain and Romney have gone a soft one at a stop, both discussing returning soldiers dead or mangled (Romney also did it on Meet the Press regarding the day the Mormon Church would start allowing black priests). In the case of getting the weepies over the war, McCain’s are the most understandable given his military background, but that’s not to say marbleface Mitt wasn’t genuinely moved by mom and pop standing over their boy’s casket as it came off the tarmac wrapped in a flag. The problem with Hillary choosing the end to show some heart is that it can easily be seen as a calculated moment given her standings, being done so over life on the trail instead of loss of life. With that in mind, it’s easy to imagine Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle thumbing through the local yellow pages after Saturday’s debates, searching for an acting coach to teach Hillary how actors do it on cue.

And she did. There was a brief pause after the start of the answer, and her eyes trailed off into the distance for a moment before plopping her head down on her free hand as she opened up to the room, her voice breaking as the eyes welled: “You know, I have so many opportunities for this country. I just don’t want to see us fall backwards….yeah.” The meek “yeah” at the end was paired with a tender expression, a moment for connection. Gotcha.

The room reacted with applause, and now the stage was set. What followed was, on the surface a conversation between one woman speaking with close understanding friends, but using a wet-nap you could squeegee the away what was being said and hear the true message being sent.

“So this is very personal for me,” she continued, gaining composure “It’s not just political. It’s not just public. I see what’s happening…and we have to reverse it.” Here, the trembling in her voice was far more revealing, and far more real. Because she wasn’t talking about the direction the country has taken or where it’s headed, rather referring – if at a subconscious level – her own campaign in NH. What’s happening is Clinton is on the eve of destruction in NH, and this was a last ditch effort to sniffle herself some votes like a girl crying her way out of a speeding ticket. And it got worse:

“And some people think elections are a game, think it’s like ‘who’s up, who’s down’ (voice breaks, eyes raise)…it’s about our country. It’s about our kids futures, and it’s really about all of us, together.”

Actually, elections are handled and perceived exactly that way. A bloodsport. Survivable by deadly practitioners with the ability to wield Gracie Jiu-Jitsu moves (or perhaps Chuck Norris?) in the trenches when it really counts if you’re going to win. And if anything is known about Hillary, is that she’s a fighter. Enter the Dragon: “But some of us are right and some of us are wrong. Some of us are ready and some of are not. Some of us know what we’ll do on day one, and some of us haven’t thought that through enough.” Now who on Earth could she be referring to?...

There’s an expression in stage acting when a character deviates from the emotion being conveyed to the audience within a scene and directly addresses the crowd while, still in character, called “breaching the fourth wall”; referring to the three walls surrounding a performance stage, the fourth figurative for where the audience sits. It’s used in key points of monologue or even when an actor has ad-libbed and knows they’ve hit a home run the audience will talk about after the show. Turning on the solid voice and swallowing back the past minute of “vulnerability”, here’s Hillary’s swan song of the talk: “So, as tired as I am, and I am, and as difficult as it is to keep up what I try to do on the road like occasionally exercising, try to eat right, tough when the easiest food is pizza, I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation, so I’m gonna do everything I can  to make my case and (shrugs) then let the voters get to decide. Thank you all.”

I’m surprised she didn’t finish with, “I’ll be here till Thursday, and be sure to tip your waitress.”