It didn’t take long for Clinton’s aides to realize she’d scored. They immediately sent out a summary of the pundits’ reactions to her closing remarks, noting that David Gergen called them “the most effective moment she’s had on television, I believe, since the New Hampshire primary” and a blogger’s comment that “Hillary Clinton just hit that closing response out of the park.” Campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe later sent a mass e-mail with a link to a video of the response, calling it a “remarkable moment” and urging recipients to “pass it on.” The e-mail’s subject heading? “It was the moment of the debate.”
The campaign didn’t waste time merchandising the “remarkable moment” on the stump and with the press. As Clinton’s press bus rolled through Dallas today en route to a morning rally, senior spokesman Mo Elleithee told reporters that Clinton and her staff are “incredibly pumped” about Clinton’s closing remarks and asked us to listen for references to them in speeches today.
It didn’t take long to discern the new emphasis. Just two days ago in New York City Clinton was railing against Obama, demanding, “Let’s get real!” and telling voters, “It is time to get real—to get real about how we actually win this election, and get real about the challenges facing America.” The speech fell flat, because it made Clinton seem shrewish; most of the press coverage of it was negative. By contrast, at her Dallas speech today Clinton immediately reminded an energized crowd of several hundred of her reflective moment.
“Last night at the debate I made it very clear that this election is about all of you,” she said. “As I said last night, every one of us faces challenges in our lives.” She seemed relaxed, interrupting herself to sweetly ask a man in the crowd to lower his sign because people behind him couldn’t see. She then joked, “I solve problems everywhere.”
The speech was also unusually personal. She spoke of how inspired she has been by former Texas Democratic congresswoman Barbara Jordan, saying, “Her courage inspired me. It was about getting up every morning against some really tough odds and going forth to make the changes that she knew would make America a better place.” Then she once again repeated the sentiment that went over so well last night, telling the crowd, “It’s not about me or my opponent. It is about what we do together, and I’ve been making positive differences in people’s lives for a long, long time.”
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.
