By now, you may have heard or even seen Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton become choked up and almost cry when a supporter asked her how she was doing. If you haven't seen it or know what she said, I've got it right here for you. This is video and below it, the text from Huff Post:
Clinton Makes Emotional Vow to Fight On - The Huffington Post
PHILIP ELLIOTT | January 7, 2008 06:40 PM EST |
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Hillary Rodham Clinton's eyes welled up and her voice broke repeatedly Monday as she talked with voters in a restaurant about her campaign for the presidency. The former first lady was making a last-minute pitch for support as she spoke on the eve of the state's primary, with polls showing her trailing Democratic rival Barack Obama.
Asked by a sympathetic voter how she keeps going in the grueling campaign, she replied, "It's not easy. It's not easy."
"And I couldn't do it if I just didn't, you know, passionately believe it was the right thing to do," she said, her voice catching.
"You know, I've had so many opportunities from this country, I just don't want to see us fall backwards," she said, her voice trailing off. The voters crowded into the restaurant applauded encouragingly.
"So," she continued, then paused, seemingly to control her voice as her listeners applauded again. "You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political. It's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it. And some people think elections are a game. They think it's like who's up or who's down.
"It's about our country. It's about our kids' futures. It's really about all of us together. You know some of us put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds. And we do it, each one of us, because we care about our country. But some of us are right and some of us are wrong. Some of us are ready and some of us are not."
She concluded, "And so when we look at the array of problems we have and the potential for it getting _ really spinning out of control, this is one of the most important elections America's ever faced. So as tired as I am _ and I am _ and as difficult as it is to try to kind of keep up with what I try to do on the road like occasionally exercise and try to eat right _ it's tough when the easiest food is pizza _ I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation so I'm going to do everything I can to make my case and, you know, then the voters get to decide."
After she spoke several of the people in the Cafe Espresso audience crowded around Clinton and offered sympathetic support.
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Presidential Candidate John Edwards waisted no time in spearing the already wounded Clinton:
Edwards, speaking at a press availability in Laconia, New Hampshire, offered little sympathy and pounced on the opportunity to bring into question Clinton's ability to endure the stresses of the presidency. Edwards responded, "I think what we need in a commander-in-chief is strength and resolve, and presidential campaigns are tough business, but being president of the United States is also tough business."
Here's my take on the issue.
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When Senator Clinton was ahead in the polls and raising money, she was just fine emotionally. Meanwhile, Senator Obama and Former Senator John Edwards and Governor Bill Richardson were all behind in the polls and fighting. They handled it all well, emotionally. Now, when Clinton is behind in the polls, and lost her first primary, she all-but falls apart.
This has nothing to do with being a woman and is unique to Hillary. I think she's so consumed with the personal ambition of achieving what her husband Bill Clinton reached -- The Presidency -- that any sign, even a small one considering how far we have to go in this thing -- gets to her emotionally.
That's not what people want in a president.
Indeed, this Facebook poll of her "tearing" is not a good one. It reports that 64 percent of the poll respondents don't think the moment helped her, where 18 percent believed it helped and 18 percent thought it would have no effect. But the poll question is weird in that it asks one to make a prediction. The real truth is that the people who wrote a response on Facebook believed that it changed their view of her -- and they're voters.
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