Demons

Sometimes, when she can't sleep or during a long bus ride to another campaign stop, the thought must pop up: Why do I keep going? The numbers are bleak. I'm generally well-regarded as a Senator, from New York no less. I could build a powerful legislative legacy. I move in the corridors of power and celebrity as few others do. I don't need this.

But as she contemplates her opponent, a young, charismatic newcomer to national politics with a strong wife and a message of change, her mind drifts to thoughts of another man who once had that aura, a man who got her where she is but who also scarred her deeply and publicly in ways few can understand, a man she stood beside through it all, a man whose presence in her life continues to be a very mixed blessing. A man who, if it were possible, could win the nomination with an ease of which she can only dream, and wouldn't hesitate to do it. A man who gave her an intimate look at the top of the mountain she's now trying to climb.

So she takes a deep breath and soldiers on, regardless of whatever damage it may do to the party (who would toss her aside to get him back if they could) because she didn't give up then and she won't give up now,and because it's what she's been doing for so long that she can't remember any other way.