Obama and Christie: It’s all right to cry

After an exhausting week, the president and the New Jersey governor finally let their feelings show

Topics: 2012 Presidential Elections, 2012 Elections, Chris Christie, Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama, Hurricane Sandy, ,

Obama and Christie: It's all right to cry (Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing)

It’s OK, guys. By now, we all feel like crying, too. As America finally begins to see the light at the end of the hellsuck of both Hurricane Sandy and a nauseating presidential campaign, two of the men who’ve been at the center of both – Barack Obama and Chris Christie – are finally finding it impossible to hold back the tears.

At his final campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, a wrung-out and obviously exhausted President Obama roused supporters for one last voter push. Speaking near the site of his 2008 caucus headquarters, an emotional Obama addressed a crowd of 20,000, his voice cracking as he told them “what one voice can do.” And as he did, a fan on Twitter promptly sent out an image purporting to be of the commander-in-chief rendered tearful as he delivered his ultimate chant of “Fired up” to the crowd.

And in hurricane-ravaged New Jersey, die-hard Springsteen fan Gov. Chris Christie couldn’t hold back his feelings after he got a hug from the famously liberal, Obama-supporting Boss. The Associated Press reports that Christie admitted Monday that after a squeeze from Bruce at Friday’s benefit concert for the victims of Sandy, he went home and cried, “calling it a major highlight during a tough week.” 

Obama and Christie aren’t the first politicians to get verklempt, of course. But during a week of exhaustingly historic proportions, what’s disappointing is the incredible lack of slack — even now — they’re granted for displaying emotion. Commenters on Twitter Monday declared the president looked “weak and beaten” and asked, “Why is Obama crying … I don’t think it’s gonna get him any extra votes.” Gawker, meanwhile, snarked that Christie getting a hug from Springsteen “sounds like a small, normal enough gesture. Not for Christie. He was so moved by the moment that he cried afterwards,” and noted his “mostly one-sided high-profile fanboy crush.” Har har!

It’s a classic example of the same old, same old. Five years ago, when then-president Bush wept at a Congressional Medal of Honor ceremony, the Telegraph asked, “Do you think less of Mr. Bush for crying at the event? Would it have been more fitting for the president to have kept a stiff upper lip? Was it self-indulgent for him to weep, particularly given his role in the war?” And in 2008, Hillary Clinton caught all manner of hell when she became tearful in the midst of her presidential campaign, because to be a woman and to cry is to be too weak to lead, right?

We may still be a long way from the day when it’s acceptable for anyone who is not a 4-year-old girl to let loose with the waterworks, but frankly, if any two sleep-deprived, overwhelmed men in America have earned the right to a three-hanky moment this week, it’s Obama and Christie. And if you disagree or feel like ragging on the guys after all that’s gone down lately, please, just go vote for a robot. Because it turns out that tears are just one more bit of common ground the otherwise opposed politicians have found in the past few days. And if Mike Bloomberg were to suddenly find himself with something in his eye today, could anybody blame him?

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub.

Next Article

Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Comments

11 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>