Hillary Clinton's tearful moment

Was this a key moment of the Clinton campaign? Post your comments at the end of this article

Political pundits have seized upon Hillary Clinton's recent display of tearfulness as the moment that propelled her to an astonishing win over Barack Obama in last night's New Hampshire primary.

The New York senator had become emotional during a campaign stop in Portsmouth on Monday when asked by a woman voter: “How do you keep upbeat and so wonderful?”

After beginning her answer, her voice began to break and tears filled her eyes. “You know, this is very personal for me. It’s not just political it’s not just public. Some people think elections are a game, lot’s of who’s up or who’s down, [but] it’s about our country.”

At the time, pundits were divided as to how her display of emotion would play out, with some suggesting it could spell the beginning of the end.

Right up until results began to trickle in, pollsters were projecting a double digit defeat for the one-time presumptive nominee, whose ratings plummeted after she was beaten into a humiliating third place by Mr Obama and John Edwards in Iowa. Mrs Clinton’s own staff were nervously telling reporters that the best result they could hope for was a slim defeat, while newspapers the world over had front pages ready to go proclaiming a second stunning Obama win. The Obama campaign had Stevie Wonder's "Signed, sealed, delivered" cued on the soundsystem, ready to go at the flick of a switch.

But then the unexpected happened. With Mrs Clinton edging ahead as soon as the precincts began to declare, commentators began to scramble for an explanation - and speculated it might lie in the moment that the former first lady’s tough professional exterior began to crack, and her vulnerable, all too human underbelly was briefly exposed.

One prominent Democratic strategist not affiliated with the campaign told Time magazine that the incident had “helped her a lot with women.”

It appeared to resonate particularly with unmarried women, a key component of the Democratic base. One campaign adviser noted that where Obama won that demographic by 13 percentage points in Iowa, Clinton carried it by 17 points in New Hampshire—a 30 point shift in just five days.

Maureen Dowd wondered in her New York Times column whether Mrs Clinton might be able to “cry her way back to the White House”.

“At her victory party, Hillary was like the heroine of a Lifetime movie, a woman in peril who manages to triumph,” she wrote.

But others took a different view. Jay Cost of Real Clear Politics’ Horse Race Blog claimed that the exit polling did not back the theory up. He said that Mr Obama had won voters who only decided which way to vote between a month and three days ago, while Mrs Clinton dominated among voters who said they decided earlier than a month ago, 48 per cent to 31 per cent.

And the two split fairly evenly the voters who had decided on the day – after her tearful moment and after the last polls were taken - 39 per cent to Mrs Clinton, 36 per cent to Mr Obama.

As for Mrs Clinton herself, it seemed last night that she had no regrets about letting her mask slip that night in a Portsmouth coffee shop. “I found my own voice,” she told her supporters as they celebrated victory. And, whether contrived or not, perhaps it is a voice that can finally challenge the passionate oratory of Barack Obama.

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