January 10, 2008

Newsweek

Play Misty for Me, Mitt

by Suzanne Smalley

Oops, he did it again. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was in Grand Rapids, Michigan yesterday talking about his late father, a former three-term governor of the state. Mitt, who has taken flack for his image as a tightly-controlled automaton who has trouble connecting with voters, welled up, the tears visible in his eyes, according to a pool reporter on hand at the event. Front-page news? The stuff of constant cable chatter, as it was last week when Democrat Hillary Clinton had a similar episode? A viral video on YouTube?

Not even close. Romney's emotional moment barely registered on the media Richter scale.

Maybe that's because it's a common occurrence. Since early December Romney's eyes have welled up on at least three other occasions. He got teary during the speech he gave in early December about his Mormon faith. He welled up during a campaign stop in Londonderry, N.H. as he spoke about a soldier dying in Iraq. And he misted over during a Meet the Press appearance when the subject turned to the Mormon Church’s decision to end some racist practices.

Or maybe it's because Romney is on a downward spiral--having lost two of the critical early voting rounds on the road to the Republican nomination. (Though Clinton's weepy episode came after a disappointing loss, too).

Or maybe, just maybe, there's a different standard for covering male and female candidates.

Rachel Maddow, who hosts a show on the liberal Air America radio network, thinks so, anyway. "Whether crying is seen as a political plus or minus, I think it is indefensible that there would be blanket wall-to-wall coverage (of Hillary's tears), including leading all three network newscasts. And yet Mitt Romney, who was just as much of a front runner as she was at the time she cried...got no national news coverage."

Maddow says that women candidates are held to an impossible standard. "If they don't show emotion they are attacked for being hard, shrill, and machine like and if they do show emotion they are too female to hold a leadership position," she says.

There is another possibility. Maybe Romney hopes his emotional moments would bring the same kind of result that they seem to have delivered for Hillary last Tuesday night in New Hampshire.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden says his emotional displays are just part the former Massachusetts governor’s warm character. Tears, he said, "are usually the result of a fond memory or a case where the governor is showing sympathy from a story he's heard or an account from a voter," Madden said. "Oftentimes it's a reflection of a connection the governor may have to someone's particular plight."

Madden said Romney often gets misty at the memory of his father. "If you want to look at who's responsible for who Mitt Romney is today that's his father," Madden said. Guess we’ll have to wait until Tuesday to see if Michiganders respond to emotion the same way voters in New Hampshire did.

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