Writes Jack D. Douglas:

When John Kasich addressed the nation on tv and his winning primary workers in Ohio last night he told them that he and his family went to a nearby restaurant for a little dinner before the results came in. As they entered the restaurant, the diners there broke into applause for the gov. when they spotted him. He said he cried when they did, obviously for joy.

I was immediately reminded of Tom Hanks’ great line in a movie about girls baseball during WWII [“A Team Of Their Own”}. One of his grown “girls” broke into tears when he strongly reprimanded her poor play. He looked dumbfounded and screamed over and over again, “There’s no crying in baseball!”

We, old-timers, know that was true of all sports and all masculine public life in America when we grew up and were young men. Men did not cry in public, except possibly when they lost a loved family member.

Here was a 63-year-old American governor who was born and raised in an industrial town in Pennsylvania telling the nation he cried openly in a restaurant when strangers applauded him.

My immediate thought was, “Wait a minute! There’s no crying by real men in American politics!”

Politics ain’t beanbag. Politics at the top level in America is real hardball and softies are barred! Even the women don’t normally cry in public, especially not the hard-nosed women reporters on Fox tv news where Kasich had his own news program for many  years.

I laughed and put it aside.

Then this morning I was watching CNBC when Obama came on the screen announcing his nomination of a Harvard ’74 grad. for the Supreme Court. The nominee stepped up to the mike and started choking back sobs that were so hard he could hardly talk–and it went on for a few minutes.

I was Harvard ’58 and I don’t remember anyone at Harvard, not even Cliffies [girls from Radcliffe], crying in public. Ditto for the rest of my life as best I can remember, except for those awful family loss situations. I just saw a movie with a tough Minn. foreman in a factory who had a few tears in his eye at a very touching moment in the factory. His workers stared in amazement. He shrugged it off and said, “I got something in my eye.” Right  on.

As far as I can remember, even Bobby Kennedy was not shown crying in public when his brother JFK was murdered gruesomely in public in Dallas.

Stiff upper lip, as our ancestors have said for eons.

I wonder what Putin thinks of these crybabies. And what about the Taliban and al-Queda and ISIS and all the rest of the people attacking U.S. soldiers and Special Ops. worldwide.

Do they assume from our leaders’ public bawling that we’re all cry-babies, softies, and easy to defeat?

Might they take Trump’s old timer toughness as a sign of strength and courage and be more ready to cooperate with him?

Even when all the Media and pols. attacked him mercilessly in public, he did not flinch or shed a tear. That’s the way it was supposed to be for eons in public life, even on the guillotine.