Hillary Clinton is certainly not the first candidate to "see a dream that [she has] held for so long die." (Besides, I think this woman has been thinking ahead to 2012 and/or 2016 for some time.) The way candidates deal with disappointment is a measure of character and the narcissism, half-truths, race baiting and coy remarks such as "If he says he's not Muslim I take him at his word" have been very defining for HRC. I think she's been cut a lot of slack for too long.