No day off for Clinton
Posted: Saturday, May 10, 2008 6:07 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli and NBC’s Cherelle Kantey
NEW YORK -- Think Hillary
Clinton is giving up? A look at her schedule suggests otherwise.
Clinton said last week that all she wanted for Mother’s Day was a day
off. But on Sunday she’ll be making at least three campaign stops in
West Virginia, a state she has called a “test” for herself and Barack
Obama.
Today, Clinton marked the holiday by appearing with Chelsea at a
low-dollar fundraiser in Midtown Manhattan. And she talked about the
epic campaign, joking that it seems like it began “a 100 years ago.”
“People ask me all the time, ‘Well don’t you get tired?’” she said.
“Well physically, of course. It’s grueling, and it’s demanding. But I
never ever get tired of meeting people and hearing their stories and
listening to what they hope our next president will do.”
She told the mostly female audience that their support has “sustained”
her throughout her effort, and said the campaign has been “a joy.”
“Now I know that may be hard to believe,” she said. “But if you would
just take the advice that I give to my own mother, and that is just
turn off the television, you will really enjoy this experience. Because
what I hear and what I see is all about how we’re going to finish this
nominating contest, which we will do. Then we will have a nominee, and
we will have a unified Democratic Party, and we will stand together,
and we will defeat John McCain in November and go on to the White
House.”
And as she talked about her plans, she talked about words of wisdom she’d received from her mother, and how “exciting” it would be for the nation to have a mother in the Oval Office.
“Part of what that would mean is that we would have someone who has lived the experiences that many of us share,” she said. “And we would be focusing on how we’re going to help families balance the work that they have to do outside the home and the really important work they do inside the home.”
Standing beside Chelsea, she said that being her mom “has been the greatest experience of my life” and thanked her for putting “her life on hold” to “make this journey together.” Earlier, Chelsea said that she knew her mother would make the strongest candidate and best president.
“I know that’s true not only for me today at 28, but also increasingly as I realize for the family that I will likely have under the next president, and because I know my mother does fight for families,” she said.
