If, as some speculate, the reason the polls were so off-base in New Hampshire was because of two late-breaking events that caused women to shift to Hillary in large numbers, it’s a disturbing sign.
The first event occurred Monday in Salem, New Hampshire, when two guys appeared at a Hillary rally with a big “Iron My Shirt” sign, heckling the candidate.
As one my readers puts it:
It is rather curious that Hillary calls for the lights to be brought up. Doesn’t she normally just keep talking over the protester or stop to wait for security to do their thing? In the midst of her crying and all around emotional meltdown between Iowa and New Hampshire how did she remain calmed and poised during such a pathetic protest? It also took a little longer for security to get to the guy. And, with all of the tight security, how does a guy smuggle in a sign that says, “Iron My Shirt” as large as his was, and someone on the Hillary staff does not catch it? Would they actually allow someone to take a blank poster inside later to write on it?
Indeed, that was an odd, perfectly offensive form of protest. (Too perfect, some will say.) Newsbusters notes it’s two guys from a shock jock show in Boston, but it’s a cartoony, wildly over-the-top form of “sexism” for Hillary to stand up against. Why not a guy in Neanderthal clothing chanting, “back to the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant, barefoot and pregnant!”? (Maybe I shouldn’t give anyone ideas.)
Then the waterworks later in the day, which led the evening newscasts on every channel in New Hampshire, and was endlessly replayed on the cable news channels.
It’s a strange, rapidly-developing alignment of events to portray Hillary as a vulnerable victim of sexism in the final 24 hours. (And I’m sorry, but if you vote for a candidate simply because that candidate cried, and because you feel pity for that candidate, you are too stupid to vote.)
But the results send a clear message to the Obama campaign, who has run on intangible, emotional themes like “hope” and “change we can believe in” instead of nitty-gritty policy details: Live by Oprahfied politics, die by Oprahfied politics.