The Politico has an interesting article up about the hostage crisis in New Hampshire yesterday and Hillary Clinton’s response to it:

The hostage-taking itself offered a rare, if small, genuine drama in a campaign season governed by strict schedules and scripted stump speeches.

And as soon as it ended, Clinton took full advantage of the opportunity she had unexpectedly been handed.

In her New Hampshire press conference, she stood before a column of police in green and tan uniforms. She talked of meeting with hostages. She mentioned that she spoke to the state’s governor about eight minutes after the incident began.

The scene was one of a woman in charge.

I’m quite sure that there will be many Republicans who will attack Clinton (below I’ll provide links to some of those who’ve already criticized her), journalists and Larry Sabato, but she’s quite right to milk this cow for all its worth. She should have used it to present herself as someone who’s in charge and who remains calm… even under pressure. As Larry Sabato said: “It looked and sounded presidential. This was an instance of the White House experience of this campaign. They knew how to handle this. What’s most important about it is that it’s not contrived. It’s a real event and that distinguishes it from 99 percent of what happens in the campaign season.”

Quite right, and she used it well. You can’t blame her for that, every other campaign would’ve done the same. What’s more, you can understand people better if you see how they react in times of crises. She reacted well. ‘Nough said.

Captain Ed Morrissey - who’s one of the most reasonable conservatives out there as long as the subject isn’t Hillary (or Bill) Clinton - disagrees: “Hillary certainly didn’t do anything wrong, but she didn’t “take charge” as the AP implies, or look presidential, as Sabato declares. She certainly looks considerably less presidential today in trying to take credit for the professional work done by the Rochester PD yesterday. That looks a lot more like a politician than a President, and we already know her credentials for the former. This incident doesn’t provide Hillary any credentials for the latter.”

It does actually and… perhaps we’ll see Republicans criticizing Giuliani for his bragging about how he dealt with 9/11? After all, it were the firefighters and cops who did the real work. Giuliani was calm, and took charge - like Clinton did - but he was far from flawless and milks his 9/11 image for all its worth.

Gaius calls it “probably one of the worst instances of political opportunism in recent memory.” To that I can only say; lets not overdo it. My God. The American political climate is one where opportunism rules. Whenever something happens, it’s exploited for political purposes.

More here.

She dealt well with it, she’ll exploit it for all its worth.

And she’s right.

UPDATE: The usually brilliant Ed Morrissey reacts to my post. “The normally clear-headed Michael van der Galien makes a very strange argument, claiming an equivalency between Rudy’s handling of 9/11 and Hillary’s handling of this incident. I suppose that would make sense — if Rudy hadn’t been mayor of New York City, and if Rudy had been hundreds of miles away, and if Rudy had merely pestered local authorities for updates instead of actually taking charge because he was in charge. In short, Michael is very confused about the difference between a city-wide catastrophe and a run-of-the-mill hostage standoff, and their implications.”

Let me respond by quoting one of the readers of this blog: “I don’t see any reason to criticize her, I think it’d be hypocritical to do so. Sure she’d milk it for all she could - it’s politics and Image is everything. Every other candidate would do it as well.”

As for Giuliani: there’s enough room to criticize him and he’s milking 9/11 for all its worth. He’s using it for political purposes and… he’s right. He should do that. As should Clinton.

What’s more, when a crisis occurs people look at their leaders. When these leaders come across as calm - be it in a big or relatively small crisis - they, rightfully, have more confidence in those leaders. Hillary understands that. As does Giuliani.

She’s smart.