By Patrick Healy 

To her longtime friends, Hillary Clinton sounds unusually philosophical on the phone these days. She rarely uses phrases like "when I'm president" anymore. Sombre at times, determined at others, she talks to aides and confidants about the importance of focusing on a good day's work. No drapes are being measured in her mind's eye, they say, and Clinton has begun thanking some of her major supporters for helping her run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton has not given up, in her head or her heart, her quest to return to the White House, advisers say. But as resolute as she is, she no longer exudes the supreme confidence that was her trademark before the first defeat, in Iowa in January. And then there were more humbling blows: replacing her campaign manager on February 10, then losing the Wisconsin primary and her hold on the women's vote there last Tuesday.

But, if she is not temperamentally suited to reckon with the possibility of losing quite yet, she is also a cold, hard realist about politics.

"She has a real military discipline that, now that times are tough, has really kicked into gear," says Judith Hope, a friend and informal adviser to Clinton, and a former chairwoman of the New York State Democratic Party. "When she's on the road and someone has a negative news story, she says, 'I don't want to hear it; I don't need to hear it.' I think she wants to protect herself from that and stay focused.

"That said, she knows that there will be an end. She is a very smart woman."

Over take-out meals and latenight drinks, some regrets and recriminations have set in, and top aides have begun to face up to the campaign's possible end after the Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4. Engaging in hindsight, several advisers have now concluded that they were not smart to use former president Bill Clinton as much as they did, that "his presence, aura and legacy caused national fatigue with the Clintons", in the words of one senior adviser.

The campaign's chief strategist, Mark Penn, and its communications director, Howard Wolfson, have expressed frustration with the difficulty of "running against a phenomenon" in Senator Barack Obama: their attacks have not stopped Obama from winning the last 11 contests. Some aides say Penn and former campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle conceived and executed a terribly flawed campaign, something Solis Doyle disputes.

"I do believe we built a good organisation - 700 people, $100 million, nationwide offices, and a strong base of support and endorsements that helped us win big states like California and New Jersey," Solis Doyle says. "Every time people have written us off, like after Iowa, we've come back."

There is a widespread feeling, though, that a comeback this time is unlikely. Clinton advisers say internal polls showed a very tough race to win the Texas primary, and while advisers are drawing some hope from Hillary Clinton's indefatigable nature, some are also burning out.

Morale is low. After 13 months of dawn-to-dark, seven-day weeks, the staff is exhausted. Some have taken to going home early - 9pm - turning off their BlackBerrys, and polishing off bottles of wine.

Some advisers have been heard yelling at close friends and colleagues. Others have taken several days off, despite it being crunch time. Some have grown depressed, be it over Obama's momentum, the attacks on the campaign's management from outside critics, or their view that the news media has been much rougher on Clinton than on Obama. And, some of her major fundraisers have begun playing down their roles, asking reporters to refer to them simply as "donors", to try to rein in their image as unfailingly loyal to the Clintons.

In interviews with 15 aides and advisers to Clinton, not a single one expressed any regrets that they were not working for Obama. Indeed, some said they were baffled that a candidate who had been in the US Senate for only three years and had been a state lawmaker in Illinois before that was now outpacing a seasoned figure like Clinton.

Clinton avoids giving pep talks to her aides, because that might suggest that the campaign is heading in an irretrievable direction. Instead, she talks to them on the trail and at headquarters about the tasks at hand, pursuing them in checklist fashion - impressing some with her hardiness, while suggesting a joyless or workmanlike feel to others.

Clinton has, though, increasingly sought to keep her fate in perspective. In her debate in Texas on Thursday with Obama, she delivered what some viewers saw as a valedictory - but what she said was a simple expression from the heart - when she spoke warmly about the race and her rival.

When Bill Clinton said last week that his wife had to win in Texas and Ohio, it was not only the first public admission by a senior member of her circle that her candidacy was on the line, it was also a moment that deepened the feeling of shock felt by some of her supporters.

"A lot of her friends are just feeling, 'How could this be happening to her?' " says James Carville, a friend of the Clintons and a former strategist for Bill Clinton. "It's just hard to understand. She is a very sympathetic person. I hope it turns around for her."

Through it all, Clinton has not retreated into a shell. She asks her aides about their children, spouses and partners. She tries to keep the mood upbeat on the campaign plane, such as recently joking about how Ohio is so diverse that it sometimes feels like five different states.

She looks and seems at her happiest after working rope lines and talking to people after round tables, hearing their stories and receiving hugs.

"Hillary is incredibly tough - she grew up with two brothers and a strong father in the Midwest, so she knows a challenge," says Solis Doyle, who has worked for Clinton on and off since 1991 until she was replaced

this month. "She has gone through so much, where someone like me would hide under the covers. But she gets up. She works. She tries."

Source:  New York Times