Crying no longer political suicide

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Updated: February 10, 2012 8:38AM

It has been a trail of tears. Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry all cried on television in the days before the Iowa caucuses.

What they did was warm, human and utterly genuine. A few years ago, we would have called them sissies.

But America has grown far too sensitive for that. Today, we look upon male lacrimation as a combination of manly sensitivity and manly courage.

Santorum seems to have done the best with his tears. He ended in a virtual tie for first place with Mitt Romney. Gingrich and Perry didn’t do as well. Lying in politics happens every day, of course.

There used to be no crying in politics. And if there was, it could be ruinous.

In 1972, Ed Muskie appeared to shed a tear or two while defending the honor of his wife just before the New Hampshire primary. Muskie said later it was merely melted snow, but some reporters saw it differently, and the damage was done.

Muskie was finished as a presidential candidate.

And it took 36 years for crying to re-emerge.

When Hillary Clinton teared up in public just before the New Hampshire primary in January 2008, her campaign staff grew terrified — a female candidate had to be strong! — and she was forced to do damage control.

“I actually have emotions,” she said on CNN.

But after Clinton won New Hampshire, everybody decided her crying was a good thing. Barack Obama’s campaign decided it was the reason she won, in fact.

“Did her choking up have a positive effect among women??” an Obama adviser told me. “There is no other reason we can see. Every poll showed us even with Clinton with women, and then we lose women to her. There was a big gender gap that didn’t show up until yesterday.”

Clinton agreed. “Yesterday,” she said in her victory speech, “I found my own voice.”

Unfortunately, her voice remained firm and steady for the rest of the race, and she lost her fight for the Democratic nomination.

Coincidentally, her husband had been one of the few sitting presidents to cry in public.

On June 14, 1993, Bill Clinton announced his nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court in a Rose Garden ceremony. Clinton wiped a tear from his cheek as Ginsburg thanked her late mother.

Losing candidates often joke about crying.

When the Gerald Ford-Bob Dole ticket lost in 1976, Dole said, “Contrary to reports that I took the loss badly, I want to say that I went home last night and slept like a baby — every two hours, I woke up and cried.”

Political life is but a vale of tears.

Oh, yeah, one more thing: The presidential candidates and their super PACs spent more than $12.6 million just on TV ads in Iowa.

Want a hankie?