The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

"Bell-Bottom-Wearing Hippie Chick"

Sadly, the Clintons have a well-deserved reputation for crying on command. (Remember Bill Clinton at Ron Brown's funeral.)

The great irony of that moment at the Yale Child Study Center is, the days when she was a "bell-bottom-wearing hippie chick" are probably the last days when she was her true, authentic, cry-when-I-need-to-let-it-out self. Staffers who know and love Hillary and insist she is funny, real, etc. in private are always nostalgic for her coke-bottle-glasses days, instead of the current public persona who robotically repeats lines about the "future of America's children."  

To be fair, later reports have said she was not really crying, but just tired.

To be unfair, I mention the question raised at a dinner party this weekend: Is Hillary's stark public/private split the result of being married to a cheater?  Going out into the world every day knowing that everyone knows requires you to develop some pretty hard armor.