"There's no crying in politics!"

“There’s no crying in politics!”

That’s what I thought when I first saw the video of Hillary Clinton choking up in New Hampshire.

I immediately thought of the scene in “A League of their Own” when Tom Hanks’ character, who manages an all female baseball team, screams at one of his players and she cries. He then utters the famous line, "There's no crying in baseball!"

But of course there is crying in politics and it means different things at different times. In 1972, when presidential candidate Ed Muskie defended his wife and appeared to have broke down and cried (he claimed it was snowflakes, not tears), it shattered his image as calm and collected.

In 1987, Democratic Congresswoman Pat Schroeder cried when she announced she wouldn't be running for president. Rightly or wrongly, it was roundly thought that it showed that a woman wasn't ready for the top job.

President Bill Clinton took crying all the way to the White House. With his trembling bitten lower lip, he was the mourner-in-Chief. He felt our pain. He had a way of pulling it off that added to his stature.

But the pundits are saying that Hillary's apparently heartfelt meltdown resonated with female voters who came out for her in the New Hampshire primary.

I have to admit, I was shocked by her choking up. I've always thought of Hillary Clinton in terms of the Terminator, that she was a a cybernetic organism: living tissue over a metal endoskeleton. With that said, her choking up appeared genuine but did anyone notice that she immediately followed it up with a veiled attack on Barack Obama?

And I guess I'll be the one to point out the pachyderm in the parlor. Hillary Clinton has shamelessly played the gender card in this race. She's done it masterfully so I giver her props on it. On the one hand, she's running as the experienced, tough, uber feminist, ready to be President on Day One Commander-in-Chief. On the other, she's this poor little girl getting beaten up by the good ol' boy network, unashamed to ride on the coattails, experience and achievements of her husband and ready to play the crying damsel in distress, if need be.

Maybe I'm just cynical when it comes to Hillary Clinton. On Monday, a protestor inflitrated one of her rallies toting a sign that said "Iron My Shirt!" He yelled the slogan several times before being hustled out by police. And the cynical part of me wonders if he was a Clinton plant.

Okay, I give Hillary her props for the win in New Hampshire. But she's the candidate who brought us THIS. Is it any wonder why I'm cynical?