Clinton Defends "The Cackle"

CBS News' Fernando Suarez reports: It has become a media phenomenon, the deep, bellied laugh of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton which took the press by storm after the former first lady's coup of the Sunday talk shows two weeks weeks ago. During her interviews on all 5 major Sunday morning news programs, Clinton often broke out into a laugh, at times almost an uncontrolled giggle. It has been replayed, rehashed and analyzed for days now.

But on Wednesday, while Senator Clinton addressed the American Federation of Teachers to pick up the endorsement of the over 1 million member union, Clinton concluded her speech saying, "I am excited and thrilled and grateful and I don't want to go on too much longer because it might cause me to laugh and then heaven knows what we may hear about in the next week or two," drawing an outburst of laughter and applause from the crowd. Many have overanalyzed Clinton's laugh anywhere from it being a political tool to stave off unwelcome questions to simply a calculated chuckle to help soften her image. Whatever it is, she's standing behind it. "You have to have a sense of humor in this business we're in," Clinton said.