The Tracks of His Tears: When and Why Charlie Baker Cries
Republican candidate for governor Charlie Baker made headlines when he got emotional during Tuesday night’s debate, but it’s hardly the first time he’s been brought to tears. The man cries a lot.
During the debate, when asked to recall the last time he cried, Baker told the story of a conversation he’d had with a New Bedford fisherman who had pushed his two sons away from taking college scholarships so that they, too, could be fishermen. Baker paused, his eyes welling with tears, as he relayed the man’s words to the moderators: “And I ruined their lives.’’
Whether or not those tears were legitimate, the waterworks do seem to come often for the former health care CEO. Here are some other things that have made Baker cry:
• The Dropkick Murphys song “The Fields of Athenry’’ when played at the funeral of a Massachusetts soldier killed in Afghanistan.
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• His daughter’s music recitals.
• Reality TV. “My dad is the guy that cries over Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,’’ his daughter Caroline said at a “Women for Charlie’’ event.
• A YouTube video about moms.
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The fisherman story itself comes from a conversation Baker had in 2009. Five years later, it still moves him.
“I told that story to somebody last week, and I couldn’t get through it,’’ Baker told the Boston Herald.
His spokesperson Tim Buckley confirmed the story’s consistently lacrimational impact on Baker. “I’ve heard him say it in a couple different things and each time he struggles to get through it,’’ Buckley said.
Baker even told the fisherman story to The Boston Globe back in 2010 during his first run for governor, as Brian McGrory (then a columnist, now editor) wrote at the time:
[Baker] also talked about a sweaty and solemn fisherman who described his job as a “cancer’’ and regretted bringing his two sons into a vocation that was heading toward death.
Did Baker cry then? No, he “paused.’’
Then he said, “The urgency in my voice comes from those conversations.’’
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