A good thing?

In her victory speech on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton said that she had listened to New Hampshire voters and, in doing so, had found her voice. If that's true, it will make her a better candidate and, if she is elected, a better President. In tonight's interview with Katie Couric, however, I thought that, while trying to show her human side, she was slipping back into the old pattern, where we can see the wheels turning before every word. It's hard to break long habits of mind.

In Saturday's debate, I thought Obama looked "presidential:" he was willing to concede that Clinton had legitimate disagreements with him, he was calm and showed an open-mindedness that stamps the true leader, and the person who has enough confidence to acknowledge others' positions. The press, however, concentrated on Clinton's defense of her "thirty-five years of working for change." And that became the line of the debate, because that's what they saw: I'd bet that for a lot of voters, that line was all that they saw of the debate: I doubt that most of them were up after 10 p.m. on Saturday, watching the umpteenth Democratic debate when there was a football game on the other channel. Frankly, I thought Clinton's response was querulous in tone (remember that I don't pretend to be an objective observer) and her argument not one she should really want the voters to concentrate on: If, after three decades of making change, we are in our present perilous and parlous condition, how is that an argument for electing her President? Still, in the short-term, hothouse atmosphere of a late-stage campaign, it worked.

I, for one, thought that the break in Clinton's voice on Monday was an expression of heartfelt emotion. The trouble is, it will be difficult to repeat. If Hillary starts displaying her emotions frequently, all the old allegations of cynically planning every move will re-surface with a vengeance. Worse, the people who believed Monday's reaction (to a question about where she gets her hair done) to have been genuine will feel they've been played for fools.

A final thought: this defeat may help Obama, as well as Clinton. A tougher campaign will make him a better candidate and a better President.