Reporter: Giuliani tossed my crying baby 'like a football' David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Monday January 14, 2008



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Print This Email This The good news is that none of the 2008 presidential candidates have 'butter fingers.' In the course of the New Hampshire primary, Darren Garnick, a writer for Slate.com., set out on a quest to photograph his 5-month-old daughter Dahlia being held by every one of the candidates. Darren and his wife Stacy appeared on CNN on Monday to describe the results and show off some of the photos. Barack Obama held little Dahlia like someone who knows his way around babies, cradling her securely and looking into her eyes. "I would vote for him just for that," was Stacy's comment on the photo. Hillary Clinton also got a top score from Garnick. "Hillary's a natural," he said. "She was very warm." In the photo with Rudy Giuliani, however, Dahlia is wailing and Giuliani seems almost as upset. "Rudy wasn't happy," said Garnick. "Dahlia smiled for the first two seconds and then she started crying and Rudy was panicky. ... He didn't want to be photographed with a screaming baby. ... He tossed her right back to me like a football." Dahlia also cried when John McCain held her, but McCain is laughing about it in the photo. "I do think it's significant to compare the personalities of McCain and Giuliani," said Garnick. "When the baby started to cry with Giuliani, Giuliani basically shoved the baby back in my face. When the baby cried with McCain, McCain was like, 'Okay, I got a crying baby.' And he made a joke that 'there goes another vote.'" "I think you can tell a lot about candidates' personalities by how they hold the baby," Garnick concluded, "but I don't think you can say whether they're going to be a good president whether she cries or not. But she did tend to cry more with the Republicans than with the Democrats." Garnick's full slideshow can be seen here.

This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast January 14, 2008.









