Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton gives an interview.
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Can I ask you one more thing about New Hampshire? You know the polls had — unless everybody I talked to on your campaign was lying to me — they seemed to be pretty late even into the day yesterday thinking that this was not necessarily going to be a great night for you. When did you figure out that things had shifted and that you had things going your way?
Well, I felt that way after the debate Saturday night, you know, [but] I had nothing to prove it. I was down 13 to 15 points [laughs] but I could sense the change coming. And then I felt it for sure when I got back from going out at the crack of dawn, actually before dawn, on Tuesday morning. I felt really good by the size of the crowds I had Saturday, Sunday, Monday. But then when we actually went out to polling places, and I looked at voters and they looked at me, I shook their hands and we saw people just randomly. I stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts and just began to ask people to go out and vote. I really felt good.
I am not one who pays attention to the polls, I know some people apparently do but that's not me. I began to sense that we were going to do well. I got back to my hotel room in the afternoon and I didn't say that I think we're going to do really well but I felt it. And you know, when the first exit polls came back and I was still nine down, I thought you know, either I have totally lost my touch for figuring out what voters are thinking and doing or this is going to be a lot better than anybody besides me thinks. Then my husband came back because he had gone to some other polling places. And his own impressions were incredibly in line with mine. We felt positive. And thankfully the voters of New Hampshire decided that they wanted to give me this chance to go forward and make my case to the American people.
Women came back to you in a very big way between Iowa and New Hampshire. I don't know if you can draw a trend line from one state to another but for instance, you lost single women to Obama by 13 points in Iowa, you won them by 17 points in New Hampshire, and they are a very big...
Well you know, Karen, there are two things about that. Number one, I don't know how anybody tries to really make sense of what happens in caucuses. I am someone who understands and really gets what goes on in elections and I think exit polls have a certain utility, but I'm sure that they give you all the information you need. So you know, on both counts from both states, what I look at is the final result, I look at the parts of the states that I did well.
You know, I came out of Iowa with only one fewer delegate than Senator Obama, so despite what was written up as this win, which it was obviously on numbers, in terms of what matters and in delegate counts, it was, you know, neck and neck. And in New Hampshire it was a close race. But this time I came out ahead so I think we're just going to keep going back and forth and I think voters are going to be looking at both of us and trying to make up their minds and I welcome that. That's what I have always intended to do and that's what I'm going to be doing for the next three and a half weeks.
I don't think about voters in categories, I really don't. I know that maybe it's a convenience to try understand what certain people might be thinking about an election but I really try to look at the electorate as people as individually as I can imagine and then try to let them know where I stand, what I do, and give them a chance make their own assessment about me. Everyone of us is individual. We don't fit into categories... One of the great things about America is our individuality. So I'm always a little skeptical of any of those categories but obviously I'm thrilled with the outcome last night.
Can you describe the moment where the President comes back on primary day and he sort of gets the same hunch you do that...
I mean, yeah, he got back shortly after I did and he came in and said "Well, what'd you think?" and I said "Bill, I'm going to do a lot better than what anybody else thinks." And he said "That's exactly what I think." And, you know, we had the same experience in '92 in New Hampshire.