Woman Who Made Clinton Cry Voted for Obama

Woman whose question sparked Clinton's emotional moment voted for Obama in N.H.

ByABC News
January 9, 2008, 11:59 AM

Jan. 9, 2008 — -- The woman whose empathetic question "how do you do it?" sparked uncharacteristic emotion Monday from Sen. Hillary Clinton ended up voting for Sen. Barack Obama in the New Hampshire primary.

Marianne Pernold Young, 64, a freelance photographer from Portsmouth, N.H., told ABC News that while she was moved by Clinton's emotional moment, she was turned off by how quickly the New York senator regained her "political posture."

Watch Clinton's emotional moment by clicking HERE.

"I went to see Hillary. I was undecided and I was moved by her response to me," Pernold Young said in a telephone interview with ABC News. "We saw 10 seconds of Hillary, the caring woman."

"But then when she turned away from me, I noticed that she stiffened up and took on that political posture again," she said. "And the woman that I noticed for 10 seconds was gone."

Monday, Pernold Young went to Cafe Espresso in Portsmouth, N.H., where Clinton was taking questions from a group of about 16 undecided, mostly female voters.

Standing in the back, she asked Clinton a question that appeared to take the senator by surprise.

"My question is very personal, how do you do it?" Pernold Young asked, mentioning that Clinton's hair and appearance always looking perfectly coifed. "How do you, how do you keep upbeat and so wonderful?"

At first, Clinton responded jokingly, first talking about her hair: "You know, I think, well luckily, on special days I do have help. If you see me every day and if you look on some of the Web sites and listen to some of the commentators they always find me on the day I didn't have help. It's not easy."

But then, Clinton began getting emotional: "It's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do. You know, I have so many opportunities from this country just don't want to see us fall backwards."

Her voice breaking and tears in her eyes, she went on, "You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political. It's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it."