When Politicians Weep...
1972: Senator Ed Muskie may or may not have shed tears during primary season on the steps of the Manchester, N.H., newspaper that accused his wife of carousing. He later says it was melting snow on his face, but it is widely reported that he sobbed.
The Upshot: His campaign soon comes to an end and George McGovern wins the nomination.
1986: President Rondald Reagan, though he was never caught sobbing, sheds several tears during his presidency, most notably at the funeral for the Challenger victims.
The Upshot: It's now OK for a political leader to show his feminine side — unless he's a woman...
1987: Colorado Congresswoman Pat Schroeder gets lambasted by the press when she cries while announcing that she will not be running for president.
The Upshot: Twenty years later, she tells the Associated Press that she still gets grief about it, especially from women.
1992-2000: Bill Clinton bites his lip and fights back tears so frequently — "I feel your pain" — that his detractors accuse him of crying on cue.
The Upshot: Two terms as President of the United States.
1996: Bob Dole, who in 1972 said Muskie's tears proved he "lacked stability", frequently sheds tears during his presidential campaign, especially when recalling stories from his World War II experience.
The Upshot: Crying becomes the new baby-kissing for politicians.
2008: Hillary Clinton — often criticized for being too cold and masculine — sheds a few tears in a New Hampshire coffee shop while campaigning for the primary.
The Upshot: She beats Barack Obama by 3 points — 13 points by women voters.
Last week: Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sobbed on the Senate floor while speaking about the retirement of Senator Judd Gregg.
The Upshot: Will the 112th Congress be known as "The Crying Caucus"?
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When Congressman and future Speaker of the House John Boehner made a teary-eyed speech to the nation after the November elections, many in the press called it “the sob heard ‘round the world.”
After his mini-breakdown with Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes” last week, pundits began taunting him with nicknames like “Weeper of the House” and “Sobbin’ John.”
“What you see is what you get,” Boehner told Stahl about his proclivity towards public displays of emotion. “I know who I am. I am comfortable in my own skin, and everyone who knows me knows that I get emotional about certain things.”
Earlier in the interview, he told her the kinds of things that “are very difficult” for him to talk about. Mainly, family and kids.
“I can’t go to a school anymore,” he said. “You see those little kids running around. I can’t talk about it.”
“Why?” Stahl prodded him.
“Making sure those kids have a shot at the American dream like I had. It’s important.”
The national media have not been kind to Boehner for his show of emotions.
An Op-Ed piece in the Los Angeles Times suggested that Boehner weeps for schoolchildren because his policies are robbing them of their future.
“If he were making his decisions based on what government programs might help today’s schoolchildren reach their dreams, like the Kennedy- and Johnson-era programs that helped him, his voting record would be very different,” wrote Tom Lutz, author of the book “Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears.” “It is a deep enough contradiction to make him weep for the future.”
Even the conservative press has questioned his proclivity toward tears.
“My worry is that his frequent tears seem tied to a belief that his elevation is a personal vindication and proof the American dream still lives,” wrote Michael Goodwin, a New York Post columnist and Fox News contributor. “This is nonsense, unless he sees attaining government power as the American ideal.”
The conservative blog RedState.com posted an entry saying, “Someone needs to tell John Boehner to grow the heck up and stop crying in front of every camera thrust in front of him... It was OK to see a sniffle here and there in the past, but this is now becoming a pattern in which Boehner just lets loose with the waterworks every time he’s asked to make a comment on something even tangentially emotional.”
Boehner’s tears are playing better locally, however, as even the opposition sees his increasingly frequent breakdowns as a marker of true sensitivity.
“I think it’s actually become part of his political persona,” said Jocelyn Bucaro, chair of the Butler County Democratic Party. “So perhaps the public accepts it a little more.
“I don’t think it will affect his ability to serve as Speaker of the House. He will be judged more by his politics rather than his emotions.”
Boehner’s emotional displays get mixed reactions
Although there have been reports that Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas choked with tears at various points during their famous political debates, the prevailing notion over the next century or so was that crying in public was a sign of weakness.
Too many tears?
The most famous example in modern history of a political career ruined by tears is the case of former Democratic Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie, who called a press conference in 1972 on the front steps of the Manchester (N.H.) Union-Leader in an attempt to take on publisher William Loeb, who had written scathing editorials about Muskie and impugned the character of the senator’s wife.
It was snowing that morning, and Muskie was a credible presidential front-runner going into the New Hampshire primary, but when the Washington Post lead its report saying Muskie had “tears streaming down his face” and that “his voice choked with emotion” as he called Loeb a “gutless coward,” his campaign took a nose dive.
Other newspapers reported tears, albeit not in the lead, and Loeb reacted by saying that a guy who gets so emotional over what a newspaper writes is perhaps not the man you want with his finger on the nuclear-weapons button.
Even though Muskie won the New Hampshire primary, George McGovern landed the Democratic nomination and many attribute Muskie’s decline to that press conference in the snow.
History is much less certain, however, about whether Muskie was actually crying that day. He later said that the “tears streaming down his face” was melting snow, and even the writer of that phrase later admitted that it could have been snow.
Boehner’s tears
There’s no ambiguity, however, about John Boehner’s public displays of emotion. The report on “60 Minutes” last week that showed him breaking down on a few different occasions — prompting Lesley Stahl to ask Mrs. Boehner at one point, “What set him off that time?” — was only the latest in a series of tearful Boehner appearances. He also broke down after the November 2010 election and has been known to shed tears speaking on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
While Boehner has taken a lot of hits from the national media over these episodes, many speculating about his emotional health, some local politicians and Boehner’s constituency seem to have a more tolerant view.
“Showing your emotions doesn’t hurt,” said State Rep. Courtney Combs, R-Hamilton. “We all get emotional. It does show that he has some feelings, but he is a capable person and I have high hopes of his performance as Speaker of the House.”
Combs did say, however, that he has known Boehner for over 20 years and has never seen him get emotional.
Area developer and former chairman of the Butler County Republican Party, Carlos Todd, said when he served as a West Chester Twp. trustee with Boehner, the congressman did not seem overly emotional.
“He wasn’t a weeper back then,” he said.
Tears: helpful or hurt?
But, Todd said it would be understandable that as Boehner looks back on where he has come from in his humble beginnings as a janitor to what he has achieved, he would be emotional.
“Political life is very tough and you have to be thick-skinned,” Combs said. “I think sometimes when you show emotion people relate to it now” more than they might have in 1972.
However, Bryan Marshall, an associate professor of political science at Miami University, believes if Boehner continues to show such emotion, it will eventually hurt his credibility.
“In politics, it’s probably not a characteristic you want to have out there in the forefront,” Marshall said. “When you see a political leader crying, it sends the message that the person hasn’t dealt with his emotions properly.”
Because the national spotlight has only been on Boehner a short time, the images of Boehner’s face twisted in tears would soon be the dominant public perception.
Our readers’ reactions
JournalNews readers who responded to a call for comments expressed mixed feelings about the Congressman’s tears.
“I am not bothered by public crying as it does send messages to others of sensitivity and compassion,” said Terry Haynes-Toney. “But I am concerned at how many times we’ve seen John cry in a short period of time, which has me questioning his emotional stability or is it yet another political type of move?
“Finding myself asking those two questions shows me I am suspicious of his credibility and ability in carrying out the duties for which he has been elected.”
Bob Burns, a Hamilton High graduate now living in the District of Columbia, said, “I think it will definitely hurt his perception from those that don’t know him, but I don’t think it’s a sign of weakness.
“Nobody could be in the position he’s in and be weak. Politics will eat you up and spit you out and he’s been at it for years.”
Joy Sharp agreed that crying at emotional moments is not a sign of weakness.
“I think it’s a sign that he knows what America is all about and he’s emotional about our country’s gift to those who pursue their dream,” Sharp said. “Sometimes it is just good to look at a person’s open heart and not tag it on how it affects the political scene.”
“A whole lot of what is wrong with this country (is that) we have all been taught to suppress our emotions,” said Barb Brock.
“We so need to validate each other’s pain. We need to teach our kids it is OK to cry, and to be assertive in a calm way to express ourselves.”
Cincinnati resident Cindy Senefeld retorted, “I don’t mind that he cries, I just mind his politics.”
Staff writer Lindsey Hilty contributed to this report.
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