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Video of the Day: Hillary Clinton Gets Verklempt
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 7, 2008
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 7, 2008
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Now that Hillary Clinton's campaign seems to be struggling in the wake of Change (with a capital C!), everyone's trying to figure out what her seemingly verklempt moment with a group of women at a Portsmouth, NH event means. When asked how she does it, how she gets her act together day after day on the campaign trail (the questioner mentioned how Clinton's hair always looked so coiffed), Clinton seemed to get teary as she answered. You can see the full response above, but here's some of it:
"You know, I think, well luckily, on special days I do have help. If you see me every day and if you look on some of the websites and listen to some of the commentators they always find me on the day I didn't have help. It's not easy...
"It's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do. You know, I have so many opportunities from this country just don't want to see us fall backwards... [voice starts to break] 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.
"Some people think elections are a game, lot's of who's up or who's down, [but] it's about our country , it's about our kids' futures, and 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, some of us know what we will do on day one and some of us haven't thought that through enough.
"And so when we look at the array of problems we have and the potential for it really spinning out of control, this is one of the most important elections American has ever faced."
As comparisons have been drawn to Ed Muskie, the 1972 presidential candidate whose campaign faltered after he seemed to tear when defending his wife (he said it was melted snowflakes), it's unclear how people - more importantly voters - will react to the moment. Newsweek even suggests that if Barack Obama, who is leading Clinton by the double digits, wins in NH, photographs of teary Clinton will be headlined under "Trail of Tears." The woman who asked the question, Maryann Pernold, seemed to be satisfied, saying, “She really loves us and wants us to succeed in the world, I think she’s real now, there’s a person there.”
Does a softer, gentler Clinton make you want to vote for her? And we can't help but think of this Whitney Houston song.
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barack obama
clinton
crying
election 2008
hillary clinton
houston
obama
Politics
presidential candidate
Whitney Houston
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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