Redding: Hillary cries save me from the Black man

Jan. 9, 2008, 10 a.m. - What's most interesting about the recent vote in New Hampshire is how Sen. Hillary Clinton was able to pull the race card by crying herself into a win over big, bad Black Sen. Barack Obama. She cried or teared-up when asked what keeps her going just a day ahead of the state's primary against a surging Obama.
            "It's not easy and I couldn't do it if I just didn't," Clinton replied, "you know, passionately believe it was the right thing to do. You know, I have so many opportunities from this country, I just don't want to see us fall backwards (her voice is now breaking as people applaud). This is very personal for me it's not just political, it's …I see what's happening, we have to reverse it and some people think elections are a game."
            While tearfully proclaiming that she “didn’t want to see us fall backward” that’s exactly where she took us. The implication was that only she, among all the candidates, especially Obama, could lead our country into the future. How disingenuous and insulting, not only to the other candidates, but especially to the black folks who faithfully support the Clinton machine.
            Most pundits immediately cited the obvious historic example Maine's Ed Muskie's tearing episode. Muskie, who was upset at attacks on his wife, lost the race for the White House back in 1972. He has since said that he did not cry, but that it was just snow melting on his face. Clinton, however, has not denied that she was on the verge of tears — she actually confirmed it during an interview with Fox News.

Her admission comes as some pundits had said that if a man can't get away with crying then Clinton — who is trying to be the first female to reach the presidency — certainly can't.
            Now it is general knowledge that crying is the oldest trick in the book and can be very helpful. Crying usually works in relationships, when some try to get their partner to stay with them.
            The reason it worked for the usually composed Clinton is because we are in uncharted waters. The pundits forget that crying also works as a rally cry among Whites anytime a White woman is in distress due to the unwanted advances of a Black man — or any man for that matter. One of the most famous examples in this post-slavery society we live in is the Emmett Till incident.
            We know that single women turned out to vote for Clinton because of her tears, a constituency that had begun to fall for Obama's message of hope and change. The crying even convinced some Obama supporters to vote for her, according to Fox News.
            The fact is, we had Obama, a black man, doing extremely well in New Hampshire's polls – he had been down by as many as 20 points in the weeks leading up to the election, but surged after his convincing win in Iowa. He immediately began to lead in the New Hampshire primary by as many as 10 percentage points, according to polls.
            His defeat yesterday effectively caps his surge and has many pundits asking what happened? Well, Clinton did something you won't hear about on most news networks or read about in most newspapers and that is, she took us back to slavery and Jim Crow - she cried foul and Whites fell for it.

(Robert "Rob" Redding Jr. is the Publisher of the Washington Continent, Redding News Review and author of "Hired Hatred: Why politicians, political parties & the political prejudices they tout are mutually exclusive from good government.")