Clinton wins

If you have not seen the video of Clinton 'tearing up' you should. Reports are vastly misleading. It was without a doubt what won it for her in my mind.

The Clinton campaign had been failing for much the same reason the Gore and Kerry campaigns failed: the voters never got to feel that the highly scripted, risk averse picture of the candidate that the professional consultants were trying to project was authentic. When the mask splipped and the voters got a glimpse of what was behind it they connected with it.



It is also likely that Clinton did benefit from the backlash against the sexist reports in the press. Several Edwards leaning bloggers said his response 'made it easy for them to let go'. Everyone expected the media to be playing the hysterical woman story. They were visibly piling on. Folk who were thinking about a punt on Obama as against racism switched to Hilary.

Clinton was 'teary' and did demonstrate 'emotion' but she was not in tears and she was not emotional. Any candidate out on the trail, whether they have a vagina or not would have been pleased to deliver that performance. But for Hillary it was even more powerful because it completely shattered the press story that she is a cold, calculating, robot. She made the authentic emotional connection to her audience that Gore and Kerry never managed to do.

H/T Talking Points Memo