CNN’s Cafferty Gushes Over Hillary’s ‘Unguarded Moment’

CNN’s Jack Cafferty went out of his way to compliment Hillary Clinton for "becoming emotional at a diner in New Hampshire" on Tuesday’s "The Situation Room." " In a brief, unguarded moment yesterday, Hillary Clinton gave us a peek behind the curtain, and it was terrific." He went on to say that Hillary "became one of us, just for a minute."

Cafferty’s lauds for Clinton came eight minutes into the 4 pm Eastern hour of "The Situation Room" during his regular "Cafferty File" segment. Besides offering these words of praise, Cafferty leveled some criticism of how Hillary had handled herself up until that "unguarded moment."

CAFFERTY: I don’t ever remember seeing her quite like [how] we saw her yesterday. And maybe that’s part of her problem. Not that anybody has asked me, but what if she threw away the script? And instead of lecturing and speechifying and hitting us over the head with her resume, what if she focused on the shared concern that the vast majority of people have about the future of their country?

The full transcript of the "Cafferty File" segment from Tuesday’s "The Situation Room:"

JACK CAFFERTY: In a brief, unguarded moment yesterday, Hillary Clinton gave us a peek behind the curtain, and it was terrific. In breaking down and becoming emotional at a diner in New Hampshire, she may have done herself more than all of her handlers and consultants and campaign strategists could ever dream of doing for herself. She became one of us, just for a minute. In all the years that I've watched Hillary in the public eye -- and I first met her in 1992 when I was covering the New Hampshire primary during her husband's first presidential campaign -- I don’t ever remember seeing her quite like [how] we saw her yesterday. And maybe that’s part of her problem. Not that anybody has asked me, but what if she threw away the script? And instead of lecturing and speechifying and hitting us over the head with her resume, what if she focused on the shared concern that the vast majority of people have about the future of their country? That’s exactly what Barack Obama has tapped into, and it seems to be working pretty well for him.

See, the American people are not as easily manipulated as some folks like to think. We really do get it. It’s just sometimes takes us a while to wake up. I think we’re awake now. And the candidate who recognizes that fact and realistically taps into our hunger for our leaders to level with us -- well, that person will be the next president. The problem for Hillary is it may already be too late. But at this point, what has she got to lose?

Here’s the question: Should Hillary Clinton throw away the script? You can go to cnn.com/caffertyfile, and post a comment on my blog.