When crying baby meets a big crybaby

Politicians in the west love to love babies, especially on the campaign trail. They pat them, praise them, pull their bonny cheeks and even hold them up, to the delight of proud parents. With absorbent diapers now ubiquitous, at least in the western world, the danger of the baby-turned-campaign tool leaving a malodorous mark on the campaigner is now virtually non-existent. So, baby-coddling can safely be counted as a no-risk form of pampering its voting age relatives, one would think. One would think wrong. Babies can bawl, as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump found out earlier this week.

Trump initially played it cool. He loved babies, "What a baby, what a beautiful baby. Don’t worry, don’t worry." But the baby continued to cry. Trump then changed his mind. You can take that baby away, he said. People believe you when you say you love to hear a baby cry when you speak, they just don’t understand. But that’s okay, that’s okay, he said. Then, another baby started to cry. Before Trump could accuse the baby of being a Democrat out to disrupt his campaign, it had the sense to quieten down. The Child is the father of the Man, said Wordsworth. What the child that grows into a man who cannot stand a baby in distress, is a question that Trump can expect a reporter to pop any day now.