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'This is very personal for me'
08/01/2008 07:26 - (SA)
New Hampshire - Hillary Clinton fought back tears and her voice quivered with emotion on Monday, as the strain of her damaged White House campaign welled up and cracked her legendary reserved public face.
In one of the few moments in her years on the political stage that her inner feelings have been exposed, Clinton, eyes moist and reddened, was asked by Marianne Pernold, 64, how she managed to keep on going every day.
"It's not easy, and I could not do it if I just didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do," she said, at the end of a conversation with undecided voters in a coffee shop, one day ahead of the New Hampshire presidential primary.
"I have had so many opportunities from this country, I just don't want us to fall back," Clinton said, as her voice dissolved into a whisper.
Then in one of the few insights the campaign has given into Clinton's inner character, she said: "This is very personal for me ... it is not just political, ... I see what's happening ... we have to reverse it."
'It's about our kids futures'
"Some people think elections are a game," said the former first lady, her voice breaking again. "It is about our country, it is about our kids' futures," she said.
Clinton mused about the challenges and sacrifices faced by her and fellow White House hopefuls on the gruelling campaign trail.
"Some of us put ourselves out there and do this against pretty difficult odds."
"We do it each one of us because we care about our country," said Clinton, whose campaign has made huge efforts to portray her as a loving person, at odds with a hardened public image.
"But some of us are right and some of us wrong, some of us are ready and some of us are not," she said, as she sat at a table in the coffee shop surrounded by mostly women voters.
"Some of us know what we would do on day one, and some of us haven't really thought that through enough.
"This is one of the most important elections America has ever faced, so as tired as I am, and I am ... I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation.
"I am going to do everything I can to make my case, and leave it to the voters to decide, thank you," as her audience applauded.
Earlier, in an interview with CBS, Clinton expressed determination to battle back against the meltdown of her support base, now under an assault from surging Democratic rival Barack Obama.
"Whatever happens tomorrow, we're going on," she said of the results of Tuesday's vote. "And we're going to keep going until the end of the process on February 5."
With more than 20 states holding primary votes, February 5 could very possibly be the day that the Republican and Democratic White House nominees are decided.
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