Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigning on Wednesday in Shepherdstown, W.Va.
SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s greatest gift may be her ability to remain upright and smiling as chaos and chagrin surround her.
On what was probably one of the toughest days of her campaign so far, with pundits and analysts of all stripes declaring her presidential candidacy finished, Mrs. Clinton put on her battle face Wednesday and confronted what was at times a hostile crowd at a hastily arranged speech here at Shepherd University.
Shepherdstown, a quaint and hippieish town on the Potomac River in the West Virginia Panhandle, is where Robert E. Lee led his Confederate Army in retreat after the battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day of the Civil War.
Mrs. Clinton endured boos when she mentioned her proposal for a gasoline tax holiday, catcalls when she spoke of ending the Iraq war and, most difficult of all, the heckling of her daughter, Chelsea, who introduced her.
“End the dynasty!” a young man holding an Obama poster shouted when Chelsea Clinton stepped to the microphone.
All the while, a smile was fixed on Mrs. Clinton’s perfectly made-up face — not a hair was out of place — and she betrayed only an occasional glimmer of recognition of the exceedingly narrow straits she must now navigate.
At one point in her 19-minute remarks, Mrs. Clinton promised that the United States would have universal health care “if I’m president,” a deviation from her customary “when I’m president.” She said she was proud of her two-point victory in Indiana on Tuesday, but made no mention of her 14-point loss in North Carolina. Nor did she speak the name of her rival, Senator Barack Obama, or even refer to him as “my opponent,” as she ordinarily does.
Her remarks on the steps of 19th-century McMurran Hall on the main street of town were an abridged cut-and-paste job of her standard stump speech. It was not her most fluid effort. While discussing incentives for education and public service, she took a sharp detour into trade policy and vowed to get tough with oil-producing nations before circling back to preschool programs. But the modestly sized audience applauded at the appropriate times and, except for an unusually large and at times vocal contingent of Obama supporters in the crowd, the appearance went off without incident.
Mrs. Clinton added the stop at 3 a.m. Wednesday in an effort to show that she remained committed to campaigning in the remaining six contests on the Democratic primary calendar (West Virginia holds its primary on Tuesday). She may also have been seeking refuge from the dust storm of speculation in Washington over the fate of her campaign. She returned to Washington after the event in Shepherdstown to try to persuade a small group of undecided superdelegates to remain undecided, and then to raise money for her near-broke campaign at a mother-daughter dinner at a hotel.
A pop psychologist might say that Mrs. Clinton was showing symptoms of denial or of being divorced from reality, but she has said for months that she will not quit as long as there remains a mathematical possibility that she could capture the nomination. That chance narrowed considerably Tuesday night, but the path is not totally blocked.
As a brief news conference after her remarks at the college, she said, “It’s a new day, it’s a new state, it’s a new election,” her upbeat tone never wavering. “I’m staying in this race until there’s a nominee. I’m going to work as hard as I can to become that nominee.”
Jay Carson, a campaign spokesman, said that he had spoken privately with Mrs. Clinton on Wednesday morning and that she was in a good mood.
“We feel we did well last night,” Mr. Carson said. “She is not someone who is buffeted by the day-to-day ups and downs of the campaign. She is tough and tenacious. That’s why she’s a phenomenal campaigner and why she’d be a great president.”
“She’s unflappable,” he added. “She’s proven that to you in the press and to the voters.”
In her victory speech in Indianapolis on Tuesday night (in which she also conceded North Carolina), Mrs. Clinton vowed to press on but sounded wistful at times about a long campaign that many believe will soon draw to an end. She delivered an unusually long list of thank-yous, reminded Democrats that “we are all on the same team” and pledged to support the nominee — if she does not prevail.
But there was no sense of leave-taking Wednesday, as Mrs. Clinton began what she described in a fund-raising letter as the “final 28 days of voting.” But her supporters sensed that more than a calendar page was turning. Many said they felt that Mrs. Clinton’s quest was coming to a close.
Joanne Drewry, 47, a contractor in Shepherdstown, stood in the back of the crowd holding a pole with six Clinton posters stapled to it. She said she was disappointed in Tuesday’s results and believed that it meant the end of Mrs. Clinton’s presidential ambitions, at least this year.
But she said she hoped that Mr. Obama would offer Mrs. Clinton the vice-presidential nomination and that she would accept it.
“I’d like to see them join together,” Ms. Drewry said. “They’d sweep the nation.”
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