Michael Smerconish: HOW HILLARY OPENED MY EYES

January 18, 2008

Philadelphia Daily News

ENDEARING.

It's not a word I'm accustomed to using when speaking of Hillary Clinton.

Yet it was the first thing out of my mouth after watching her "moment" in a Portsmouth, N.H. coffee shop just before that state's primary. For an instant, I found her to be genuine and warm. Hell, I even found her momentarily attractive.

And if she receives the Democratic nomination and is then elected president, her reply to a Granite State inquiry about "how she does it" will have to be regarded as a watershed moment in the 2008 campaign.

The question - posed by one of 16 undecided voters present at the event - actually drew some laughs at first: "As a woman, I know it's hard to get out of the house, and to get ready. And my question is personal: How do you do it? How do you keep upbeat and so wonderful?"

Sen. Clinton did not reply with a sound bite. Instead, she paused before saying: "You know, I have so many opportunities from this country, I just don't want to see us fall backwards."

Suddenly, the 16 undecided New Hampshire voters in the room were enthralled.

"This is very personal for me. It's not just political, it's not just public," a misty-eyed Hillary continued.

"I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it. And some people think elections are a game. They think it's like who's up and who's down. It's about our country, and it's about our kids' futures, and it's really about all of us together."

Even before the public speculation began, the media struggled to describe what happened.

A local TV station went live with a report that Clinton had started crying. Other reporters tried to correct him. No one was anxious to use the c-word.

Where the New York Times saw "her eyes visibly wet," the Inquirer's Thomas Fitzgerald observed that "Clinton's voice broke and her eyes appeared to water."

Since then, many have watched and concluded that her emotion was phony. I disagree. And I'm in good company among Republicans. Karl Rove and Rudy Giuliani both told me they accepted Hillary's show of emotion at face value.

"Look, there's no way you could phony that up," Rove said, "and it was a great moment for her."

Rudy Giuliani concurred: "I have no reason not to believe it.

"When I saw it, it looked actually like she just got caught up in it. Did it look contrived? No, I don't think so," he told me.

Apparently New Hampshire voters agreed. Because as the tape was played and dissected, Sen. Clinton was experiencing a reversal of fortunes in the Granite State - one that would puncture, at least momentarily, the tires on Barack Obama's free ride to the nomination, and redefine a candidacy once thought too inevitable to need a touch-up.

The argument that the Portsmouth moment was calculated is belied by New Hampshire presidential history. It was there, after all, that Sen. Edmund Muskie had his own "moment" in 1972.

In the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary, Muskie, the front-runner for the Democratic nod, delivered a speech outside the offices of the Manchester Union Leader in the midst of a snowstorm.

The paper had published a damaging article about Muskie himself, and another critical of his wife. Reporters claimed Muskie began crying as he spoke, though to his death Muskie claimed the "tears" were actually melted snowflakes.

NONETHELESS, the incident derailed his campaign.

Say what you will about the Clintons, no one can deny their political sophistication and savvy. There is no way they would choreograph Hillary's "moment" in the same state where Muskie's breakdown cost him an election. They're too politically smart to take that risk.

All of which leaves no doubt in my mind as to what actually happened last week in Portsmouth: A tired political warrior became emotional as her political life flashed before her eyes.

And now it seems the campaign has learned to harness Clinton's emotional identification of "her own voice." The softer Hillary was again on display when she sat down with Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" last weekend - an appearance the Associated Press described as "spirited."

Look, I confess I've never understood the Clintons' appeal. I'm certainly not a Clinton-hater, though I've never been a fan, either. It's not so much that I questioned whether Hillary had the appeal she displayed in that coffee shop. What concerned me was her steely nature. What exactly did her refusal to show emotion reveal?

Then came Portsmouth. The result has been a significant shift for the Clinton candidacy. Armchair pundits like me are finally listening to what she says, and not how she says it. Still, it's no guarantee that we will like what we hear. But it's a start. *

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5:30-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com.