So, Hill's at a roundtable with a bunch of local ladies and someone says something, um, like totally sympathetic to her. It's so rare, it really needs to be seen:
As a woman I know it’s hard to get out of the house and get ready," asked Marianne Pernold, a local freelance photographer. "Who does your hair?"
And Hillary could have responded that she used to do it herself but she always got so much product in it that it started looking clumpy. You know what I mean? When you put too much layering gel in and it just starts sticking together in a weird way and then it's bad hair day all day long?
But no. I guess the question was just so unusual in a plain human way that she said what everyone on this board has been waiting to hear: her reason for running.
"It’s not easy, it’s not easy, and I couldn’t do it if I just didn’t passionately believe it was the right thing to do," she said.
"I have so many opportunities for this country. I don’t want to see us all fall back," she said, her voice breaking in the last phrase.
"This is very personal for me," she said to supportive applause from the small gathering, at which she'd been discussing policy around a table for an hour. "It’s not just political, it's not just public — I see what's happening. We have to reverse it."
"Some people think elections are a game — it’s about who’s up and who's down," she said. "It's about our country's future, it's about our kids' future — it's really about all of us together."
"And some of us put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds, and we do it each one of us because we care about our country," she said.
"Some of us are right and some of us are wrong. Some of us are ready and some of us are not. Some of us know what are going to do on day one, and some of us haven’t thought that through enough," she said.
"When we look at the array of problems that we have, and the potential for it really spinning out of control — this is one of the most important elections America's ever faced," she concluded.
And yes, there were tears. But heck, who wouldn't be teary when they suddenly tap into that passion to make things better? That desperation to fix things that are horribly broken.
You know that feeling, right? It's the one where you have to do something very, very important and it's taking all of your strength and you want so much to help. And there are people standing in your way, obstacles you remove only to see new ones crop up. But that goal is still there. The broken still needs to be mended. The country that is standing in front of a speeding train chained to a maniac still needs that push.
And you feel that you could do it, you can help and it's hard but you're going to try. Because it is just that important.
It's not a game. It's not a horse race. It's not just politics. It's my country and I want it back. I want to move it forward. And if we do not win, it will be a disaster that may take decades to recover from, if ever we do.
So, there it is guys, the moment you've been waiting for. The reason she's running. I'm not shocked or surprised. It's the ONLY good reason to run. But it takes a question about hair to bring out the passionate, committed person that she is. She let her hair down.
If only we'd thought of it sooner.
Update: I think it was really classless for John Edwards to say what he said. How many of you got teary eyed whenever someone played God Bless American after 9/11? And would you have considered that a sign of weakness? This is what I think happened today. It's not a sign of emotional weakness so much as overwhelming concern for the country.