Ouch. Maureen Dowd on Clinton…

I’m finding it interesting to watch the all powerful media and polls up in the air too, this race is going to be one fun ride (until Feb.)

Can Hillary Cry Her Way Back to the White House?

This quote below was along the lines of what I was thinking earlier this week.

Another reporter joked: “That crying really seemed genuine. I’ll bet she spent hours thinking about it beforehand.”

But of course, this is the game of politics that I love/hate so darned much. Although I don’t think this show of emotions made *the* difference in N.H. Personally, I think the media gets super caught up in the drama of the moment which allows for polls to take suit, which somehow has a way of neglecting the solid tour de force that Mrs. Clinton has in place to begin with…but that’s just my opinion.

But the rest of her Op Ed, um…. (Thank God TimesSelect went to the graveyard!)

There was a poignancy about the moment, seeing Hillary crack with exhaustion from decades of yearning to be the principal rather than the plus-one. But there was a whiff of Nixonian self-pity about her choking up. What was moving her so deeply was her recognition that the country was failing to grasp how much it needs her. In a weirdly narcissistic way, she was crying for us. But it was grimly typical of her that what finally made her break down was the prospect of losing.

As Spencer Tracy said to Katharine Hepburn in “Adam’s Rib,” “Here we go again, the old juice. Guaranteed heart melter. A few female tears, stronger than any acid.”

The Clintons once more wriggled out of a tight spot at the last minute. Bill churlishly dismissed the Obama phenom as “the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen,” but for the last few days, it was Hillary who seemed in danger of being Cinderella. She became emotional because she feared that she had reached her political midnight, when she would suddenly revert to the school girl with geeky glasses and frizzy hair, smart but not the favorite. All those years in the shadow of one Natural, only to face the prospect of being eclipsed by another Natural?

Gloria Steinem wrote in The Times yesterday that one of the reasons she is supporting Hillary is that she had “no masculinity to prove.” But Hillary did feel she needed to prove her masculinity. That was why she voted to enable W. to invade Iraq without even reading the National Intelligence Estimate and backed the White House’s bellicosity on Iran.

Yet, in the end, she had to fend off calamity by playing the female victim, both of Obama and of the press. Hillary has barely talked to the press throughout her race even though the Clintons this week whined mightily that the press prefers Obama.

Her argument against Obama now boils down to an argument against idealism, which is probably the lowest and most unlikely point to which any Clinton could sink. The people from Hope are arguing against hope.