Gingrich tears up over his motherNewt Gingrich choked up while discussing his mother’s struggle with mental illness during a town-hall meeting in Des Moines.
Gingrich was asked to speak about a time his mother affected him at the event sponsored by CafeMom, a social networking website for mothers.
“You’ll get me all teary-eyed — Callista will tell you, I get teary-eyed every time we sing Christmas carols. My mother sang in the choir and loved singing in the choir,” Gingrich said, referring to his wife, as he fought back tears.
“But I identify my mother with being happy, loving life, having a sense of joy in her friends, but what she introduced me to, is late in her life she ended up in a long-term-care facility. She had bipolar disease, and depression, and she gradually acquired some physical ailments, and that introduced me to the issue of long-term care, which I did with [Former Nebraska Sen.] Bob Kerrey for three years, and that introduced me to the issue of Alzheimer’s, which I did with Bob Kerrey for three more years, and my whole emphasis on brain science comes indirectly from dealing with the real problems of real people in my family,” the former House Speaker continued, at moments stopping to cry.
It was actually a humanizing moment – any guy who wouldn’t shed a tear for his own mother is a psychopath.
So how did the media treat it?
Molly Ball / The Atlantic Online:
Frank Luntz Always Makes Newt Gingrich CryDiscussion: C-SPAN Video Library, The Raw Story and Guardian
Howard Fineman / The Huffington Post:
Iowa Caucuses Offer Tale Of Two: Gingrich Laments, Romney BasksDiscussion: HullabalooAlexander Burns / The Politico:
Newt weeps at Iowa stop
Discussion: The PJ Tatler
FWIW – I think Newt’s tears were real. He’s just not that good an actor. I still won’t vote for him though. Not in this lifetime.
Via Legal Insurrection, here is what Mitt Romney said today:
The Crawdad Hole 
We all know what happened when Hillary cried.
Except, as we all know, Hillary did it just to fool voters.
Or …the exclamation that Hillary has a heart??
Or maybe she gets periodically down?
Spare me the tears.
They are all frauds!
I can spot them a mile away.
Isn’t there one authentic person who can be President in this country?
Sad.
A little fun find from the wayback machine from the SNL archives….Newt and Bill cold opening…..
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/gingrich-cold-open/1351900
Isn’t it sad that we’ve become so jaded that if someone cries it becomes an opportunity to get the knives out. News flash: he’s a human being, just like Hillary. That was not planned–still doesn’t mean he’s worthy of a vote, but try to stop the media maw from gnashing away on that for a few days.