Both figuratively and literally, it turns out. Hillary Clinton meandered through the Badlands of South Dakota yesterday, making a stop for a little "tourist" fun--a visit to Mount Rushmore.

While the New York senator enjoyed the site, she was surrounded buy a U-shape of cameras hoping to get a shot of her looking at the monument while a traveling staffer insisted on standing in front of the her to block the shot. When the staffer refused to move after many calls from the press and other staffers, Clinton turned around and said "this is a tourist occasion."

A reporter attempted to ask Clinton if she could see herself on the famous monument. Clinton just raised her hands in the air and said "I" and sighed. Another reporter asked "Do you think Bill Clinton should be up there?" Clinton didn't answer and said "why don't you learn something about the monument."

Ha ha. Clinton "ignored" almost all press questions at the event, according to reports. As Gail Collins notes, perhaps it was symbolic:

On the day before Hillary's arrival, Mount Rushmore had been enveloped in a cold, damp fog that completely obscured the presidents. It was a bracing 34 degrees, but tourists soldiered through anyway, shivering and snapping pictures of each other standing in front of a big cloud of mist.

"Maybe that's a metaphor of the national climate," said Skip Brown, a visitor from Minneapolis...

When the idea of visiting Mount Rushmore came up, Hillary must have intuited how perfect it was. Not only the site of an impossible dream come true, but also the place where visitors make the best of the cards they're dealt, prepared if necessary to stand around admiring an impenetrable fog.

Clinton heads to Montana early next week.