Difficult day ends well

Clinton: 'Relieved' no one got hurt
Thank goodness the authorities in New Hampshire didn't panic, and were able to bring this tense situation to a safe conclusion. Imagine how this might have played out under Rudy's administration, had this taken place in NYC during the Giuliani years. Yikes! Remember Amidou Diallo, the unfortunate young man shot more than 40 times while reaching for his wallet to provide identification?

A tense standoff at a presidential campaign office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Rochester, N.H., ended shortly after 6 p.m. this evening when a man later identified as Leeland Eisenberg was taken into police custody after holding at least four people hostage. There were no apparent injuries.

Mr. Eisenberg was described by friends and relatives as despondent, with his wife recently asking for a divorce. One person said he had been drinking for 72 hours before he entered the campaign office. Mr. Eisenberg also called CNN to rant about the state of the nation’s mental health system, the network reported.

Once the situation was resolved, Mrs. Clinton said, “I am very grateful that this difficult day has ended so well.”

Mrs. Clinton praised the “courage” of both the hostages and their families, who she said she spoke to throughout the day and then left to fly to New Hampshire to join them. [...]

When the ordeal ended, Mrs. Clinton would not go into the details of what had happened, saying that was for the police. But her relief was evident.

“This has been a very hard day for all of us in our campaign,” she said. “I want to thank them for their extraordinary courage and coolness under some very difficult pressures and dangerous situations.”