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Their Phony Yuks Run Amok

Writer says Hillary and Rudy are only hurting themselves

By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 12, 2007 2:50 PM CST

(Newser) – The presidential frontrunners have both taken to laughing loudly when facing hostile questions, and Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter says they’re tittering up the wrong tree. Hillary Clinton laughs uncontrollably when her health care plan is compared to “socialized medicine” and Rudy Giuliani gets giggly when quizzed on his mistress. Of course, neither is really amused; when they’re laughing, it’s “really a glare.”

Great politicians often use laughter for manipulation, Alter allows, including FDR; but the New Dealer’s amusement was also deemed “as joyous, hearty, rolling, thunderous laughter as ever was heard on this sorrowful globe.” Clinton and Giuliani are both funny in private, but their fake guffaws make them look inauthentic. So they’d better sit tight—and save the laughs for jokes.

[Images (5)]

[Videos (1)]

Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., accompanied by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, laughs as they are introduced at a Rally for Change at the Iowa State... (Associated Press)

Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter to Hillary and Rudy: Enough with the fake laugh. (Associated Press Composite)

As security stands guard Republican presidential hopeful former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani laughs as he waits behind doors for his introduction at a speaking engagement in Del Mar, Calif., Wednesday,... (Associated Press)

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, right, laughs in reaction to comments from Winifred Stearns of Hanover, N.H. during a campaign stop in White River Junction, Vt., Wednesday, May 23, 2007.... (Associated Press)

Presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., laughs as she talks to the media after meeting with Missouri clergy Oct 5, 2007 in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) (Associated Press)

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Their Phony Yuks Run Amok