by Rick Pearson

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio—Job duties keep you away from a significant other on Valentine’s Day? Don’t fret. Let Hillary Clinton make the call.

As Clinton’s campaign prepared to depart northeastern Ohio for a stop in Dayton, the New York senator and former First Lady strolled down the aisle of the campaign’s chartered Boeing 737-800 to pass out an assortment of chocolates to the traveling press.

It was, she said, her way of making up to the reporters for not being with their special someone on Feb 14.

“Now, I got in last night and there were a dozen roses and some chocolate and I talked to Bill this morning,” Clinton said of her husband and chief campaign surrogate.

“You know, we’ve spent every Valentine’s together for, goodness, longer than some of you have been born, probably 37 years,” she said. That line drew some under-the-breath guffaws from some of the “elder” members of the traveling press.

But Clinton also went on to offer some assistance to two members of the press corps—Fernando Suarez, an embedded reporter from CBS, and Ken Vogel, an Internet correspondent from the Web site, Politico—by making calls to apologize to their valentines.

“I’m fine but I want to personally apologize to you,” Clinton told Suarez’s special someone. After a few moments of listening, Clinton responded, “Well, I would love to be Fernando’s second choice for Valentine’s Day.”