PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Sen. Hillary Clinton’s uncharacteristic emotional moment on Monday took campaign-weary reporters by surprise.

One minute Clinton, in response to a voter’s question, was talking about who styles her hair, saying some days she has help and other days she does it herself. Those latter days, she joked, are the ones photographers seemed to capture.

Then, her voice started to quaver, and the mob of reporters, jammed into a tiny cafe, many with their heads bowed as they took notes, whipped to attention.

“It’s not easy, and I couldn’t do it if I didn’t passionately believe it was the right thing,” Clinton said, explaining how she keeps campaigning day after day. “This is very personal for me, it’s not just political.”

As she said, “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,” her voice cracked, her tone grew hushed and her eyes glistened with tears. The room was silent except for her hushed voice.

“But 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 we will do on Day One, and some of us really haven’t thought that through enough.”

“As tired as I am, and I am, and as difficult as it is to keep up what I try to do on the road, like occasionally exercise and try to eat right, it’s tough when the easiest food is pizza, I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation, so I’m going to do everything I can to make my case and then voters get to decide.”

All this from the former first lady whose demeanor never cracked even as the world learned the most sordid details of her husband’s infidelity with a White House intern.

“Even I wanted to reach out and give her a hug,” said one reporter who has covered former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton for many years.

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