Voice

“Over the last week I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice.”

Hilary Clinton Victory Speech
New Hampshire, Tuesday, January 8, 2007

Self awareness is a wonderful thing. I don’t think we want to have a President who finds self-reflection uncomfortable or alien to his or her intellectual make-up. Self-awareness has been lacking in George W. Bush and Bill Clinton doesn’t score high in that category either.

From early in the campaign, Hilary Clinton’s central failing has been her lack of authenticity. She has pandered and seemed to follow the will o’ the wisp of the polls.

For her, finding her own voice is key. A year ago in Selma, she spoke on the anniversary of the march on that town with a Southern accent that dripped of fat back and hog’s maw.
It was disgusting.

Or, maybe it was a new tactic. Maybe the latest campaign consultant was a diction coach who can assist the candidate, chameleon like, to modify their voice for every jurisdiction.

Maybe Hilary fired her diction coach and, thereby, found her own voice. Or, maybe she listened to the voters of New Hampshire, and the voice she found had some of that clipped New England style she first learned at Wellesley.

Her voice in South Carolina will tell the tale.