Hillary Clinton Feature

So does her mother, who was in Miami last week to visit her boys and attend her daughter's rally in North Miami Beach. A soft-spoken woman, Dorothy Rodham has been tagged a "homemaker" in the press, a title that hardly suggests the vigor of her intellect. Few know, for instance, that it was mom who dispensed the Rodham kids their earliest lesson in political rebellion. "Where we grew up, everyone was supposed to vote Republican," Tony explains. "When campaigners came by, it was always to tell us which Republicans to vote for. But our mother always asked them for information on the Democratic candidates. She always taught us to question."

For now, mama Rodham's main question is when, if ever, her family's life will return to normal. While she enjoys tending to granddaughter Chelsea during the campaign, she frets over the campaign's grueling schedule. Backstage after her daughter's speech, she politely grills a personal assistant about Hillary's plans, nodding helpfully at the assistant's nervous speculation.

"I never knew what Hillary was going to do when she grew up," she says. "First it was a doctor, then a lawyer. She was always so motivated, so directed."

But didn't little Hillary ever want to be anything more fanciful? A painter, perhaps? Or a ballerina?

Dorothy Rodham gazes at her daughter, just a few feet away and still surrounded by a wall of fans. "A ballerina?" she says. "Oh no, never. Never a ballerina.