PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (Reuters) - A teary-eyed Hillary Clinton pushed for support on Monday as polls showed her poised for a huge New Hampshire loss to Democratic rival Barack Obama, but the former front-runner vowed to carry on with her presidential quest even if she loses.
Obama warned supporters against overconfidence as a flood of new polls gave him a double-digit lead over Clinton one day before the state casts the next votes in the race for the White House.
Polls will close in the state at 8 p.m. EST on Tuesday, with results expected to begin rolling in quickly.
At a campaign event in Portsmouth, Clinton choked up and grew uncharacteristically emotional as she talked about her reasons for seeking the presidency in the November election.
"Some of us put ourselves out there and do this," she said, her voice breaking and her eyes glistening with tears, "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," she said in a hesitant, quaking voice. "Some of us are ready and some of us are not."
The incident resurrected memories of former Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie's tears during the 1972 New Hampshire campaign, credited with helping to bring down his front-running bid.
Clinton, who would be the first woman president, promised to stay in the fight until it was over, possibly on "Super Tuesday" on February 5, when 22 states hold nominating contests in the quest to be the party's nominee in the November election.
"Whatever happens tomorrow, we're going on," she told the CBS "Early Show."
"I've always felt that this is going to be a very tough, hard-fought election, and I'm ready for that," added Clinton, who finished third in the first nominating contest in Iowa last week behind Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
Obama rolled across the state in an effort to turn out supporters, warning there was still plenty of work needed before Tuesday's vote.
"Do not take this race for granted. I know we had a nice boost over the last couple of days but elections are funny things," Obama, an Illinois senator vying to become the first black U.S. president, told supporters in Claremont.
In the state's hard-fought Republican race, Sen. John McCain of Arizona held a more narrow lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in new polls. He scrambled across the state to urge supporters to get out and vote -- and asked them to bring a friend.
'I'M GOING TO WIN'
"I need you to get out the vote tomorrow, this could be a very close election and it will depend on voter turnout," McCain said in Keene. "I'm proud to say I'm going to win tomorrow."
New Hampshire is the next battleground in the state-by-state process of picking Democratic and Republican candidates for November's presidential election to succeed President George W. Bush.
A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll showed Obama with a 10-point edge on Clinton in the state, 39 percent to 29 percent, as he gained a wave of momentum from his win in Iowa.
McCain was relegated to the political scrap heap last summer after sinking polls and poor fundraising forced him to shake up his staff and recalibrate his campaign, but he now leads Romney by 5 points in New Hampshire.
Clinton and Romney are both under pressure to revive their campaigns after disappointing showings in Iowa, and a second consecutive loss for either could be devastating.
Romney, who at one time led polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, finished second in Iowa to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
A wealthy former venture capitalist who has pumped tens of millions of his own money into the race, Romney said he was buoyed by a Sunday night debate where he tangled with McCain and Huckabee over their records on taxes and immigration.
"Right now it's a neck-and-neck race. But with the debate last night and the support I received from that debate I anticipate winning tomorrow," Romney said in Stratham.
Obama has been drawing huge crowds on the campaign trail and was joined on Monday by former Sen. Bill Bradley, a one-time professional basketball star who ran his own unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2000.
"Starting tomorrow morning, you have a chance to declare a new day, you have a chance to turn a page and write a new chapter in American history," Obama said. "It is very important for us all to be clear that we have not won anything yet -- here in New Hampshire."
Apologizing for a hoarse-sounding voice, he added, "I asked a doctor what he would prescribe and he said 'shut up."'
I actually wonder if that will play in Hillary's favor. I think it's the first time she's acted human in the entire campaign. The culture has changed since Edmund Muskie ran for president.
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I think a lot of people were only backing Hillary because she was the heir apparent, and they figured that they needed to back whichever Democrat could garner enough popular support to beat the Republicans. I don't think they necessarily had a whole lot of loyalty to Hillary in the first place.
Now that Hillary has stumbled and Obama looks like a more viable candidate, many of these people are probably quite willing to jump ship. He has to put in a few more good showings to get all of them onboard, but they were Hillary's fair-weather friends to begin with. All she needs is a bit more stormy weather, and she can kiss them goodbye.
Mind you, if she puts in a good showing in the near future, they could just as easily come rushing back to her camp. They're bandwagon jumpers.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Outside of my political objections to Hillary, I do feel bad for her. She is on the cusp of a historic opportunity to be the first woman president, an accomplishment that would immortalize her name and be a huge symbolic victory for women everywhere--and the opportunity has evaporated. Obama got the Iowa bump, her image of inevitability is shattered, and if she loses N.H. as it appears she will, it'll probably just be the second step of an accelerating spiral towards Obama's nomination. This is all happening within a matter of under a week, so it has to be a huge emotional blow.
On top of that, huge numbers of people in America hate her for basically no reason. It's possible that without the right-wing hatred for her, and the concomitant blow at the Democratic Caucus (Iowans like electability, and didn't want to support someone with so many negatives), she might have won Iowa.
So she's probably going to lose the nomination, and the general election is the Democratic candidate's race to lose, which means that Obama will probably win in November. The upshot is that he will be the candidate in 2012, so the next opportunity Hillary will have to become president will be in 2016, when she will be 69 years old. I would be crying, too.
Considering the hostility of the campaign press to her, I expect we'll be hearing more of this "lol hillary cried" bullshit going into Tuesday.
"I am gravely disappointed. Again you have made me unleash my dogs of war."
--The Lord Humungus
I don't feel bad for her at all. She's been planning this whole operation since 2000, and along the way, she has shown absolutely no principles whatsoever. She's nothing more than a political whore. She deserves to lose, and I intend to laugh my ass off at her if (or more hopefully, when) she fails.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
I saw this on Channel 4 news, she didn't look human as much as she looked merely bitter that she'd been totally scuppered by this upstart Obama. It was like watching a kid who just can't believe that the more popular kid came in at the last minute and accomplished what she'd been planning for meticulously in half the time and effort.
I also cracked up when she was saying shit like "voting for change isn't saying you disagree with the patriot act and then voting it in; voting for change isn't saying you disagree with the iraq war and then voting for more spending, change is doing!" (or something like that) and the reporter just butted in and said "of course, she doesn't mention she also voted for the patriot act and increased war spending." I love channel 4 news, I need to watch it more.
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I wonder how it would have gone if she'd got involved in 2004 rather then '08.
As it is, since she waited so long everything she did was (rightfully so) cast in the light of "she's voting this way so she can call herself a centrist when she runs for President".
If she'd made a late entry in to the race in 2004, I think she would have done much better then now seeing as the field then was much worse then it is now and the party was looking for anyone but Howard Dean.
Of course, she's not finished yet but with a 10% gap in the poll, she might as wel be.
"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? "
-Abraham Lincoln
Personally I get joy from her pain and frankly I don't believe her crocodile tears for a moment. Every single aspect about her is manufactured and manipulated to get what she wants. From wearing a Yankee cap when she first appeared in public to run for NY Senate to these bullshit tears. Even if they were true tears, she also just confirmed a lot stereotypes that men have of women under pressure. They cry. Not very presidential.
Wherever you go, there you are.
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The Hildebeest has only herself to blame. She pandered to her mommy-state "base", energizing the youth vote against her, and then the female vote turned against her too. Try again next time, oh and try to be less evil while you're at it.
I'm curious, which accent was she using when she was doing this whining?
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Probably the best thing that could happen. Things were looking as if it was going to be another 2004. A choice between the lesser of two evils that I just opted out into the third party for just to not vote for either of them.
Obama I can vote for, Hillary I could not.
Although I am a little disappointed, seeing as how I intended to write in Cobra Commander this year if it came down to Hillary and Huckabee/Guiliani
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Darth Wong wrote:I don't feel bad for her at all. She's been planning this whole operation since 2000, and along the way, she has shown absolutely no principles whatsoever. She's nothing more than a political whore.
To a great extent I think the perception of Hillary as being an especially egregious example of the political hack comes from the media's hostility to her (Glenn Greenwald had a good post about it recently), and also the fact that she is a woman, and women aren't supposed to lust nakedly after power. In reality I don't believe she's any worse than John Kerry or any of the other old crackers on the hill. That fact that she's nothing special is exactly her problem--she's par for the course in D.C. and gunning for the nomination against two other candidates who are promising change.
"I am gravely disappointed. Again you have made me unleash my dogs of war."
--The Lord Humungus
I was listening to Randi Rhodes' show the other day and the guest host (Sam Seder, IIRC) was talking to a reporter who was covering Iowa, and the subject of media hostility to Hillary came up.
The reporter said his guess is that it stems from her being condescending and arrogant towards the reporters who cover her.
He contrasted this with Obama's behavior in being accessable, making small talk with them and at least acting friendly to the reporters who cover him.
How true it is, I don't know.
You'd think however that HRC would know better than to pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel and bandwidth by the terabyte.
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."- General Sir Charles Napier
Glocksman wrote:You'd think however that HRC would know better than to pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel and bandwidth by the terabyte.
If I was her I'd hate them, too. Their mutual history is far from friendly; months and months of "your husband face-fucked a chubby girl young enough to be your daughter", plus faithful reporting of right-wing nutjob accusations that she'd had Vince Foster murdered, make it hard to be buddy-buddy with them.
But maybe at this point I should say that, though I do sympathize with her, I don't actually support her or what she stands for.
"I am gravely disappointed. Again you have made me unleash my dogs of war."
--The Lord Humungus
Darth Wong wrote:I don't feel bad for her at all. She's been planning this whole operation since 2000, and along the way, she has shown absolutely no principles whatsoever. She's nothing more than a political whore.
To a great extent I think the perception of Hillary as being an especially egregious example of the political hack comes from the media's hostility to her (Glenn Greenwald had a good post about it recently), and also the fact that she is a woman, and women aren't supposed to lust nakedly after power. In reality I don't believe she's any worse than John Kerry or any of the other old crackers on the hill. That fact that she's nothing special is exactly her problem--she's par for the course in D.C. and gunning for the nomination against two other candidates who are promising change.
Oh I'm not saying she's unique. She would fit right in ... among the Republican candidate field. But compared to her Democratic opposition, she looks like a real mercenary. Especially for supporting the Iraq war, not to mention cozying up with Big Pharma after making such a big show of opposing them when she was the First Lady.
By the way, I watch very little American political media. Perhaps it's not entirely the media's fault.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
What's really odd is that I don't support Hillary as a presidential candidate...but I still plan on voting for her for Senate when she comes up for reelection.
the former front-runner vowed to carry on with her presidential quest even if she loses.
Please tell me she is just referring to New Hampshire, and not the democratic nomination. The would be very bad for the Democrats if she ran for president as an independent.
Molyneux wrote:What's really odd is that I don't support Hillary as a presidential candidate...but I still plan on voting for her for Senate when she comes up for reelection.
A good senator does not mean a person would make a good president.
I think that if Hillary loses in New Hampshire, she's finished. Some candidates have come back from losing either Iowa or New Hampshire. I can't recall an instance of one who came back from losing both.
Also, I think right now there is a general revolt by Democrats against the DLC, who are seen as nothing but a gang of party hacks more interested in extending the power of their machine. The Democrats control Congress today because Democratic voters and candidates in 2006 listened to Howard Dean instead of Tom Vilsack and Evan Bayh and Hillary is seen as being cut from that same mould.
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People pray so that God won't crush them like bugs.
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Molyneux wrote:What's really odd is that I don't support Hillary as a presidential candidate...but I still plan on voting for her for Senate when she comes up for reelection.
Well, since your only feasible alternative would be to vote for the Republican candidate in the Senate race, yeah, I guess that makes sense.
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