Topic subject Behind the scenes at Hillaryland in NH, Bill Clinton wept when he heard the results

Forum Name General Discussion: Politics
Topic subject Behind the scenes at Hillaryland in NH, Bill Clinton wept when he heard the results
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4016658#4016658
4016658, Behind the scenes at Hillaryland in NH, Bill Clinton wept when he heard the results
Posted by Herman Munster on Wed Jan-09-08 07:37 PM

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801u/hillary-campaign

To say that that the Clinton campaign was preparing for the worst understates the deep sense of gloom that settled over Hillaryland.

Several senior staffers were MIA. Clinton had taken the reins of her inner circle, self-strategized, rewritten her stump speech and generally decided to shed the hardened political shell around her personality. It worked, although she did not know it.

Yesterday morning, some of her aides dressed casually; there was no reason to spruce up.

On Monday night, the press corps had carpooled to her final campaign event; some called it the "Clinton swan song."

The final Clinton campaign internal tracking poll projected an 11-point loss. Early in the day, a senior campaign official said the campaign's boiler room canvasses of targeted precincts predicted a major Obama victory.

Reports of high turnout deepened the worry; this was Iowa all over again. Clinton cloistered with her family on the top floor of the Centennial Inn in Concord.

During the day, as Clinton contemplated a winless future, her campaign's advance team built a small crowd for a school gymnasium in Concord.

At first, the crowd was, indeed, small. But Nashua and Manchester, gritty, blue-collar, working class cities, began to report in, and the margin for Hillary Clinton was huge.

By 9:00 p.m, as the pied piper of victory played on the television, supporters found their way, startled and excited, to the gym.

A Clinton adviser, by e-mail, said: "It's going to be very close."

Around 10:00 pm ET, the AP projected the race. The remaining precincts were too widely distributed throughout the state to fall to one candidate.

About seven hours of ecstasy followed. At the Centennial Inn, President Clinton, according to several sources, wept.