Clinton’s Personal Pitch

In a 15-minute speech Clinton spoke much of the time about real people. She told of her work getting children health insurance, reflected on the plight of a woman she met who is working two jobs without insurance for herself or her children, and recalled a conversation with a Laredo man who is losing his home to foreclosure. Calling him "one of the many people I have encountered across America who is about to be foreclosed on because he wanted the American dream for his family," she said that if she's elected she will make a difference for people like him. But today her focus was less on her policies than it has been in the past and more on the man's terrible situation. "His wages haven't gone up," she said sadly. "But the interest rate sure has. And he asked me what sense does it make for me to lose my house? Nobody's going to buy my house. Nobody's buying houses right now."

The kinder, gentler version of Hillary Clinton on the trail today seemed to be working. The crowd was moved. The press took notice.

It surely wasn't hard for her to grow emotional at a short press conference she held after her Texas speech. She refused to take questions as had been planned, because she had just learned that a Dallas police officer escorting her motorcade had died in a roadside accident. (The press bus and Clinton's car passed the gruesome scene on the way to the Dallas event, passing within feet of the shredded motorcycle and the bloodied, facedown body of the officer.) A visibly shaken Clinton told the press, "We are just heartsick over this loss of life in the line of duty … This reminds us what our men and women in law enforcement do every single day, and it is important that we respect and appreciate their service." She later cut short a rally in Fort Worth and traveled to meet with the officer's family while the press was taken to the airport to wait for her. It was a tragic end to an unusually emotional morning on the Clinton bus.

© 2008