It has been absolutely fascinating to me to go through the

While I was glad to debate the relative merits of our competing economic plans, I was under no illusion that the questions about my character had gone away. As the campaign drew to a close, I told an enthusiastic crowd in Dover what I really believed about the character issue: It has been absolutely fascinating to me to go through the last few weeks and see these so-called character issues raised, conveniently, after I zoomed to the top by talking about your problems and your future and your lives. Well, character is an important issue in a presidential election, and the American people have been making character judgments about their politicians for more than two hundred years now. And most of the time theyve been right, or none of us would be here today. Ill tell you what I think the character issue is: Who really cares about you? Whos really trying to say what he would do specifically if he were elected President? Who has a demonstrated record of doing what theyre talking about? And who is determined to change your life rather than to just get or keep power? . . . Ill tell you what I think the character issue in this election is: How can you have the power of the presidency and never use it to help people improve their lives til your life needs saving in an election? Thats a character issue. . . . Ill tell you something. Im going to give you this election back, and if youll give it to me, I wont be like George Bush. Ill never forget who gave me a second chance, and Ill be there for you til the last dog dies. Til the last dog dies became the rallying cry for our troops in the last days of the New Hampshire campaign. Hundreds of volunteers worked furiously. Hillary and I shook every hand we could find. The polls were still discouraging, but the pulse felt better. On election morning, February 18, it was cold and icy. Young Michael Morrison, Jan Paschals wheelchair-bound student, woke in anticipation of working a polling place for me. Unfortunately, his mothers car wouldnt start. Michael was disappointed but not deterred. He rode his motorized wheelchair out into the cold morning and onto the shoulder of the slick road, then wheeled himself into the winter wind for two miles to reach his duty station. Some people thought the election was about the draft and Gennifer Flowers. I thought it was about Michael Morrison; and Ronnie Machos, the little boy with a hole in his heart and no health insurance; and the young girl whose unemployed father hung his head in shame over the dinner table; and Edward and Annie Davis, who didnt have enough money to buy food and the medicine they needed; and the son of an immigrant waiter in New York who couldnt play in the park across the street from where he lived. We were about to find out who was right.