In perhaps her most public display

of emotion of the campaign,

Hillary Clinton’s eyes welled with tears,

and her voice cracked dramatically,

as she talked about holding up

under the rigors of the race

and her belief that she is the best candidate

Hillary Clinton at a round table discussion at a coffee shop
in Portsmouth, N.H [click on image to enlarge]

Hillary Talks About Strains of Campaign [Original]

In perhaps her most public display of emotion of the presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton’s eyes welled with tears, and her voice cracked dramatically on Monday, as she talked about holding up under the rigors of the race and her belief that she is the best candidate for the Democratic nomination.

If it was not an Ed Muskie moment — Clinton did not cry (or look like she was crying) — she was certainly on the verge of it after a woman asked her, at a round table discussion at a coffee shop here, how she managed to get out of bed and soldier through each day.

“How do you do it?” the woman, Marianne Pernold, asked. And, with a touch of humor, she added, “Who does your hair?”

“It’s not easy, it’s not easy,” Clinton replied slowly. “I couldn’t do it if I did not passionately believe it was the right thing to do. It’s very personal to me.”

At this point Clinton’s voice softened and lowered to a near-hush, and she spoke more haltingly.

“I have so many ideas for this country, I just don’t want to see us fall backwards,” she said, her eyes visibly wet, as a row of news photographers began snapping away to capture the moment. “It’s about our country, it’s about our kids’ futures.”

“Some of us are right some of us are wrong,” she continued, firming up a bit — and sounding, some reporters felt, either angry or resentful about Senator Barack Obama.

“Some of us are ready, and some of us are not. Some of us know what we’ll do on day one and some of us don’t.”

In talking to the women today, Clinton mentioned that “as tired as I am, and I am,” she was trying to exercise and eat right and get some sleep when she could.

And, about her hair, she said, “luckily on special days you do have help. If you look on some of the Web sites and listen to some of the commentators, they usually catch me when I don’t have help.”

Mrs. Clinton has rarely let herself become visibly emotional in public life, and there has not been a moment like this one during the presidential campaign.

Some of her political advisers have been trying to find ways to bring out Hillary Clinton’s human side more, given that voters have said they find her to be remote and too focused on policy.

At the same time, she and her advisers have mostly underscored her strength and resilience during the campaign, since many voters put a premium on having a forceful presence in the role of commander-in-chief.

Friends of Mrs. Clinton who were here at the Portsmouth event said they were struck by the moment; one said she had only seen Mrs. Clinton tear up like this once in decades, and it happened in private.

“You saw there was a moment when it flicked inward — it was her inner being answering, ‘why am I doing this?’ ” said the woman, Gloria Cabe, a former aide to Clinton in Arkansas.

The woman who asked the question, Mrs. Pernold, said after the event that she was moved by Mrs. Clinton’s response.

A television reporter asked her if she thought the tears might be manufactured, given that Clinton is in a tough fight against Barack Obama for the nomination, and many people find Obama more personally accessible.

“I don’t think she could make up it up,” Mrs. Pernold said. “Could you do that? I think she really cares about us.”