"I'm not here today just because I love and believe in my husband but because I love and believe in my country. . ." Nearly six years to the day since she salvaged her husband's presidential prospects in the Gennifer Flowers dust-up, the formidable Hillary Rodham Clinton waded in again yesterday on live breakfast television.
Last time out, she sat next to Bill, lovingly slipping her hand into his as she announced that she wasn't "sitting here - some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette. I'm sitting here because I love him and respect him. . . and you know, if that's not enough for people, then heck - don't vote for him."
This time round, the devoted yet defiant wife was less in evidence than the cool, rather weary, battle-hardened lawyer, pulling off the exceptionally slick trick of making careful legalese sound media-friendly.
She presented a class act to begin with, awesomely poised, with her perfectly-coiffed blonde bob, pearls and no-nonsense dark business suit, but emerged ultimately as a gut-wrenchingly sad one as she tried to brush away her husband's gifts (a dress, a brooch, a book of poems) to a flirty young trainee.
"He is extraordinarily generous - to strangers, to everyone around him . . .If you know him, you know he is somebody who says, `How would you like this?' and will take his tie off."
Upon which 20 million Democrats surely sighed and wondered why he couldn't damn well confine it to the tie.
As for the allegations about an affair in the first place, her response was measured: "The president has denied the allegations. . . We'll see how it plays out."
Not exactly the words of an outraged wife leaping to the defence of a husband whom she trusts implicitly. Then again, this, as we already know, is no lobotomised Tory wife, rictus-smile in place.
This is the woman who took charge, personally swung the White House troops into full battle mode over the weekend and hit the phones to pull together a strategy to keep the presidency on track. And the strategy is clear : 1) Bill is generous to a fault and 2) there is a right-wing conspiracy to pull him down.
She expressed outrage at what she perceived to be the abuse of the criminal justice system to achieve political ends. On foot of this came the subtle appeal not only to American hearts but to their patriotism: "I am not here today just because I love and believe in my husband, but because I love and believe in my country."
Her intelligence, power and ambition are beyond doubt. Her grace under pressure is legendary. On Monday, she even managed to crack a joke when a wholly disproportionate media pack turned out for the launch of a childcare programme: "I'm pleased to see so many people in attendance who care about childcare."
So she can carry it off flawlessly. The question is why does she bother?
The narrator of Primary Colours, a fictionalised account of the first Clinton campaign, complete with sex scandal, drew his own conclusion: "Her strength in the face of this embarrassment was strange. She was drawing attention to her perfection, which only served to remind people of her husband's imperfection - it was, I realised, a vengeful act."