After After Hillary Clinton had her now-famous Misty Moment (no one has come up with a name for it, so that’s my nominee) on Monday, right-wing commentators were quick to insist that it was all planned. As Michelle Malkin wrote, “Anyone who believes Hillary spontaneously teared up and got emotional on the campaign trail has been in a coma the last three decades.” Because she’s Hillary Clinton, in their view, she is incapable of anything resembling a genuine feeling – all is calculation, sinister manipulation, the dark arts of politics. The evidence is that she’s been a mean person for a long time, and therefore this must have been fake. They may be blinded by hate, but in this one case, I think they’re actually right. It was planned. Before we get to the reasons why, let’s set the context. As the first woman with a real chance to win the presidency, Hillary Clinton is subject to a whole set of double standards and Catch-22s that male candidates don’t have to worry about. If she doesn’t show emotion, she’s cold, an ice queen, a bitch. If she does show emotion, she’s unstable, not tough enough to be commander in chief. If she lives up to gender stereotypes, she gets criticized, and if she counters the stereotypes, she gets criticized. This is the reality that Clinton has always had to deal with. And you can bet that just as Barack Obama has thought very carefully about how his race would affect his bid for the presidency, Clinton gave plenty of consideration and planning to the ways her gender would play out during the campaign. So why do I think the Misty Moment was planned? The evidence is circumstantial, and I have not spoken about this to anyone in the Clinton campaign, the Obama campaign, or any other campaign. But I do think it’s compelling. So stay with me to the end. Let’s break it down: MORE ...
