« Previous | Main | Next »

Clinton Gets Emotional on Campaign Trail

Share

January 07, 2008 12:34 PM

ABC News' Kate Snow Reports: Campaigning in New Hampshire one day before the first-in-the-nation primary, Senator Hillary Clinton got emotional and had tears in her eyes as she spoke with voters about how hard it is to balance a busy campaign life and her passion for the country's future.

The Senator from New York was sitting at a big table in Cafe Espresso in Portsmouth, New Hampshire with 16 undecided voters, mostly women, warmly and calmly taking questions.

Then she took an unexpected question from a woman standing in the back.

"My question is very personal, how do you do it?" asked Marianne Pernold Young, a freelance photographer from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She mentioned Clinton's hair and appearance always looking perfectly coifed.  "How do you, how do you keep upbeat and so wonderful?"

Clinton began responding, jokingly.  First talking about her hair: "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."

But then, Clinton began getting emotional: "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," she said.

Her voice breaking and tears in her eyes, she said, "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."

Watch the video HERE.

"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," she said.

"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," she said in a veiled reference to her Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

"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," Clinton said.

After the event, Pernold Young told ABC News that she was glad Clinton showed emotion.

"She allowed herself to feel," Pernold Young said.  " I was surprised and I said, 'wow there's someone there.'"

Another woman in the group, Alison Hamilton of Portsmouth, New Hampshire said she, like most of the people in the group, had been considering Obama.

But after seeing Clinton become emotional, she said she was going to vote for Clinton.

"Her whole thing today really convinced me but that really did clinch it for me," Hamilton said. "She's very impressive."

During the event, Clinton also had an exchange with an Obama supporter asking whether she can bring change, and why the Democrats haven't been able to affect change in Congress, despite taking power after the 2006 midterm elections.

"At the end of the day when the cameras are off what have you done?" asked the voter.

Clinton responded, arguing a politician's record is important.

"I know that to some people it sounds like there's a contradiction between change and experience... You can't have one without the other."

Clinton said people aren't aware of the small things the Democrats in Congress have accomplished because the war in Iraq is ongoing.

"You just keep going at it every single day," she said. 

Get the latest political news every day at THE NOTE.

January 7, 2008 in Bush, George W., Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (1086)

User Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

I wish all three Democratic candidates and Joe Biden too could be president. Clearly they are ALL stellar. There is no doubt Senator Clinton is genius and would be wonderful. It's the passion behind the ideas I wonder about. I am ABSORBED with a Democrat finally getting into the oval office and HOPING maybe beyond hope that they even more securely retain the Congress and to at least TRY to turn over the HORRIFIC Republican agenda that has put out country so at risk. I am scared but good but the Republican way is a colossal failure. They do NOT care about the average American whether it's north, south, east or west. To think they do is utter folly. We need prescient Democratic leadership and then some!

Posted by: nmrosen | Jan 7, 2008 12:49:50 PM

"Clinton ... got emotional, her voice breaking and with tears in her eyes, she spoke about how she is passionate about this election and passionate about the country."

I think I'm going to hurl - the Clinton's are about ONE thing - power and promoting the Clinton's. Good "intentions" are NOT enough. When it's all said and done - the empress (and emperor) have no clothes. They should both move to one of the "stans" and live out their Communist dreams there.

Posted by: JB | Jan 7, 2008 12:49:58 PM

WoW... Mrs. Clinton ... what experience; Arkansas ... sitting in the white hous trying to be a Co-President... did she have security clearance. The rest should ask the question... Where's the meat she says she has. not even the Kennedy's mad teh dynasty factor... lets all deny this dysfunctional family that title.

Posted by: llew gar | Jan 7, 2008 12:50:00 PM

WoW... Mrs. Clinton ... what experience; Arkansas ... sitting in the white house trying to be a Co-President... did she have security clearance. The rest should ask the question... Where's the meat she says she has. not even the Kennedy's mad teh dynasty factor... lets all deny this dysfunctional family that title.

Posted by: llew gar | Jan 7, 2008 12:50:05 PM

Please. Now that I know Cafe Espresso let that witch eat there, I will never go there again. To think she was so close to my house makes me ill. I love it when she is losing how she pulls out the gender bashing card (they dont like me because I am a "woman") or cries. What I find amusing, literally, is that you can tell that she thought she was just going to "breeze" through the process and automatically win tjhe nomination! Not so huh Hil?

Enough with the Clintons - get these corrupt sociopaths out of here already.

Posted by: Dan | Jan 7, 2008 12:50:31 PM

Those are the tears of corporatists, who feel the coming populist revolution. The days of the DINO are over. Good riddance, Hillary.

Posted by: J Brown | Jan 7, 2008 12:50:36 PM

She is SUCH an idiot!

Posted by: hugh jorgan | Jan 7, 2008 12:50:48 PM

Hillary's emotional switch has two settings: heartless ##### and sniviling crybaby. We don't need either anywhere near the White House.

Posted by: RogerBacon | Jan 7, 2008 12:50:52 PM

When all else fails, bring on the tears. Pleeeeeese!!!!!

Posted by: grams | Jan 7, 2008 12:51:05 PM

Rommney said it best yesterday- you can't have change simply by moving the same old people around in different chairs. Washington's broke- we need fresh ideas and people we can trust. Obama is the Democrat party's best candidate.

Posted by: Richard DeLuca | Jan 7, 2008 12:51:06 PM

"...with tears in her eyes..."

You haven't seen tears until you see someone like Hillary or Obama get elected...

Posted by: Frank | Jan 7, 2008 12:51:37 PM

Obama may be an articulate speaker, but so was Hitler.

Don't be fooled by how he says what he says. LISTEN to WHAT he says -- he's no better than Hillary.

I'd vote for Satan before I'd vote for either of them.

Actually, my vote as it stands right now is write-in: NONE OF THE ABOVE.

Posted by: Frak | Jan 7, 2008 12:51:38 PM

the MAINSCREAM media hates a landslide and is doing all they can to avoid one. DEAR VOTERS...let us have a landslide so we can watch the MAINSCREAMS cry...

Posted by: daddyblue | Jan 7, 2008 12:51:43 PM

Have her get in touch with Pat Schroeder.

Posted by: jim brown | Jan 7, 2008 12:52:01 PM

Better for her to cry than for the rest of America to cry if she got elected.

She is a socialist and would take this Country down with increased taxes, soft on terrorism (as was Bill), big government spending, etc.

America is looking for a fresh start...not a re-hash of the 8 years we had with the Clinton's before. She is devisive and would not work with both sides of the isle.

Posted by: Fred | Jan 7, 2008 12:52:35 PM

I have met Hillary Clinton two times and believe me, she is honest, intelligent and forthright. This country made a mistake voting for someone they "like" or want to have a beer with. Please do not make another mistake by voting for the wrong president. The world can not afford it. Hillary is by far the best choice of all. Don't listen to what the pundants and other teams want you to hear and believe. She is the brightest and the best.

Posted by: Paul S. | Jan 7, 2008 12:52:36 PM

Boo-whoo!! Please go to the nearest mechanics workshop and ask them to weld you a back-bone. Desperate times call for desperate tears!! Hillary you are finished, please face the facts!!

Posted by: Ryan | Jan 7, 2008 12:53:18 PM

As a Barack Obama supporter, I'd say this could just be a ploy to get people to vote for her. Perhaps Clinton is simply exhausted from campaigning. Maybe she even is THAT passionate about the country. But as a person who got a degree in women's studies, I find it offensive that anyone would say that Hilary was crying because she is a woman. I'd love for a woman to be the president. Just because we menstruate doesn't mean that we're more or less emotional than men. Anyone who says that is just foolish. Ignorant statements like that are the reason women were suppressed for so long. Is Hilary being honest? I have no idea, but making it seem as though men in politics have never cried, and furthermore, accepting the idea that crying is a sign of weakness, is one of the reasons that our society is the way it is.

Posted by: Amy | Jan 7, 2008 12:53:21 PM

Who didnt see this coming? She played the victim to win her senate seat. It's all she has.

Posted by: Ray Robison | Jan 7, 2008 12:53:22 PM

A large number of undecided, open-minded voters took a fair, close and careful look at this woman over an extended time. And walked away. Look at your own comments for the roots of this turn of the tide. And for the genius of the designers of the political system that, more often than not, leaves candidates like Hillary Clinton (and Ron Paul, and Fred Thompson) wondering what happened.

Posted by: Ted | Jan 7, 2008 12:53:47 PM

Post a comment