One of the interesting things about this campaign is watching the evolution of Senator Hillary Clinton as a speaker. I’ve actually had the pleasure to hear Clinton speak in person. I was excited to have her in our little town and I have to say I was won over after her speech as were many others I talked to in our conservative section of Upstate, NY. Hillary used to come across pretty bad on television and the general consensus was in person she came off an entirely different way. That was displayed during her speech.

During the debates Clinton has, up until now, come across as surprisingly warm. She has been speaking in a very personal and conversation-driven style and has kept the right balance between sounding stern and sounding folksy. It is a very hard combination for any president, you have to be all things to all people.

There is of course a “but” here.

Clinton has a tendency to speak in the lofty, aloof tone of a politician. When she isn’t careful she seems to fall back into a nuanced, distant, try-to-sound-personal-rather-than-sound-personal style that simply reads as her ducking an answer to questions. I watched this Sundays debate on ABC and unfortunately I kept hearing her return to that space.

If you look at all debate analysis by average people the resounding response on what bothers them is “the candidates don’t answer the questions.” This isn’t entirely a substance issue, it is also a style issue. Often in the long winded ruminations of the candidates, especially those who are in deliberative bodies like the Senate, there is an answer in their mess of “I welcome the question, I think its an important question, my friend and I have a difference view but it is not a difference, my experience has shown, my thirteen point plan with eleven objectives, my congratulations, my deepest sympathy….” The problem is people get so bored they stop listening. If you have to wade through muck it isn’t effective.

Clinton isn’t the only one who sounds like this but frankly few people are paying much attention to Chris Dodd or Bill “Here is what I would do, this is what I did as governor” Richardson. Obama sometimes slips into something similar but it comes across a different way that isn’t entirely negative, he has other problems.

With Clinton it is irritating because we’ve seen the other side, we know a warm person is in there and then when the marshmallow mush returns it really makes you want to tune out.

As I said thus far her command of her voice and her ability to communicate has defied expectations and really started to warm people to her. As the campaign continues all of these candidates are going to get tired though and the desire to slip back to the native tongue will only grow. She needs to fight the urge to regress.