Reservations vanish with congressman's warm glances at children.
N A POLL taken after 100 voters were shown last Sunday's 60 Minutes broadcast, which featured Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor treating his family with affection and compassion, viewers overwhelmingly expressed confidence that Cantor "would not do anything to hurt the average American, whom he doesn't know from a hole in the wall, because he was nice to his own family."
"I know that Eric Cantor and other Republicans are constantly threatening to dismantle Social Security and Medicare as we know it," said a 54-year-old female voter, "but now I know he would never dream of doing such a thing, because his mother-in-law lives with him! Anyone who is nice to his own mother-in-law," the woman continued, "and smiles warmly at his wife and children is automatically going to show compassion to complete strangers!"
Leslie Stahl, who conducted the hard-hitting profile of Cantor being nice to his own family, agreed with the respondents.
"I was pleasantly surprised to find Eric Cantor so charming and willing to allow us into his home to watch him interact in a compassionate way with his wife and children," said Ms. Stahl. "You never know what you're going to get when you do a feel-good family profile of a standing congressman in an election year," she added.
Based on the positive results of Cantor's appearance on 60 Minutes, John Boehner is said to be angling for another interview on the news program, where an aide says the Speaker of the House "plans to cry some more and be even nicer to his family than Cantor was. This way," continued the aide, "if Mr. Boehner accidentally guts Social Security and Medicare, Americans will know that he is way too much of a softie to have really meant it."
For her part, Ms. Stahl is heading to North Korea soon to file another hard-hitting profile for 60 Minutes, this time of the closed country's new leader, Kim Jong-un, being nice to his dog.
© 1.4.12 Kate Heidel
