by John McCormick, updated at 2:59 p.m. Eastern
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – One does not see Hillary Clinton’s eyes get misty in public very often, so there was an instant buzz in the room when she got choked up today in a café here.
The moment, which certainly appeared unscripted, happened near the end of her visit with undecided voters, as she was asked how she gets ready in the morning, how she keeps looking good on the road and who does her hair.
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“It’s not easy,” she said, in her usual coolness. “And I couldn’t do it if I just didn’t, you know, passionately believe it was the right thing to do.”
But as she continued, the New York senator’s eyes started welling up.
“I have so many opportunities from this country,” she said, choking up. “I just don’t want to see us fall backwards.”Sensing she was getting emotional, those in the cafe applauded.
“This is very personal for me. It’s not just political.” she said, regaining her composure and getting back on message. “I see what’s happening. We have to reverse it.”
Then, she got choked up again.
“Some people think elections are a game,” she said. “It’s about our country. It’s about our kids’ futures…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 our 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 really thought that through enough.”
Regaining her composure, Clinton confessed to being tired from the rigors of the campaign trail.
“This is one of the most important elections America has ever faced,” she said. “So, as tired as I am, and I am…I’m going to do everything I can to make my case, and the voters get to decide.”
Marianne Pernold, 64, a freelance photographer from Portsmouth, had asked the question that triggered the emotional Clinton response.
“I was very amazed at her reaction,” Pernold said, when later asked about Clinton’s response. “And I loved her reaction.”
Pernold said she is still trying to decide between Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. “I’m smitten with Obama,” Pernold said.
Others in the room said they were equally touched.
“I don’t cry at movies,” said Gloria Cabe, a friend and former aide to Mrs. Clinton in Arkansas. “But when she was so moved…I teared myself…very moving, I thought.”
In her public life, Clinton has rarely shown emotion and reporters who cover her campaign say there have not been any other similar moments during the past year. She has, however, tried to present a softer side in recent weeks to compete against Obama’s more casual and friendly public persona.
Clinton’s misty moment followed one about 25 minutes earlier, where she seemed a bit emotional as she talked about a school she had seen in South Carolina.
“I saw the mold. I saw where the rodents come in. We’re sending our children to school like that and then we wondering why they don’t score high on a certain test?” she said. “Shame on us.”
The discussion had taken place with about 20 undecided voters seated around a table with Clinton. She gave detailed answers to questions, including taking 11 minutes to answer one health care question and a follow up. She also talked about lead paint, housing and autism.
Perhaps seeking to clarify a remark she made over the weekend that Obama has been offering “false hopes,” Clinton said she wanted to get the nation back on “the right track” with “confidence and optimism.”
Clinton also reflected on her U.S. Senate races, saying that she had been re-elected “not on the basis of what I have promised, but what I had done.”
In what appears to be an ongoing, subtle reference to Obama, Clinton called President Bush “really affable and personable,” before suggesting that his track record did not reflect what he promised he would do in office.
“But if you looked at what he had done in Texas, there was no basis for believing that he would do those things,” she said. “I don’t think my experience disqualifies me.”
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