During a long day of campaigning Monday, Clinton put on a determined demeanor, despite her $20 million in campaign debt and superdelegates streaming Obama's way.
She strolled through Biscuit World restaurant in downtown Charleston to chants of "Hill-ar-y," shaking hands with the mostly female, over-50 voters who are the backbone of her support. "She's just an itty bitty little thing!" one of them chirped.
Evelyn Keener, 90, of Charleston, brought a book for autographing. "I think Hillary is the smartest woman in the world," she declared, her campaign button urging "You Go Girl."
Clinton sat at her table for a while. "We're going to keep on going as long as we have people like you helping us," Clinton vowed hoarsely.
Campaigning Monday, Clinton talked about gas prices, food prices and soaring college tuitions, attacking President Bush more than Obama. Her audience was filled with women like Donna Miller, 50, of Logan, who supports two children on the $15,000 a year she earns at Wendy's.
Miller came to Clinton's afternoon rally at a Logan middle school the minute her shift ended, still in her brown-and-green uniform. "My dad was a Marine for 30 years, and we're not quitters," she said, confiding her worry that the Clinton campaign is in trouble.
At the end of a long day Monday, Clinton headed back to Washington to sleep in her own bed, and was scheduled to return to West Virginia tonight for a post-election party.
"I doubt Hillary will be sad. This isn't her first rodeo," said Bethany Blair, 29, of Grafton, a cosmetologist who is still deciding which candidate to support. "I am more sad for her supporters than for her. They put their heart into it."
There was a sense of melancholy, or worse, undercutting the excitement of meeting Clinton in the flesh. Plenty of voters said they would vote for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- or not at all -- if Clinton's name wasn't on the November ballot.
"I probably won't vote," declared Darlene Payne, 51, a coal miner's wife and mother of three from Buckhannon. She thinks McCain is a Bush copy, and she doesn't like Obama. "He thinks he's better than everybody else. He don't impress me."
But not all the women here mourned the possible passing of the first viable female presidential candidacy. Cecilia Donato, 51, of Mannington, who works in a county clerk's office, voted early for Obama.
