Clinton as communicator, from Wellesley to campaign trail

Yet her first public speech was a star-making one, landing her in a Life magazine write-up at the tender age of 21.

Unhappy with the words of the U.S. senator invited to speak before her, she parried with an unplanned rebuke, before launching into her prepared remarks.

Nearly 50 years later, Clinton is facing the most important debates of her life as she squares off against Donald Trump beginning Monday — three high-stakes contests that could set the momentum for the remainder of the presidential campaign.

Clinton also showed, and has honed for years, a propensity to engage the other side, to argue and counter-argue like a lawyer, Jamieson says — not surprising, since her next stop after Wellesley was a law degree at Yale.

Tannen says Clinton — like other women in authority — is subject to a "double bind," meaning whatever she does is going to violate either expectations for how a woman should speak, or how a leader should.

In other words, for a female candidate, appearing tough and empathetic at the same time is a challenge.

Biographer Gail Sheehy says that during Clinton's 2008 presidential race, her campaign emphasized the toughness, so that she would be taken seriously — especially by the military — as a potential commander in chief.

[...] Sheehy also points to a very different moment as memorable for Clinton — the 2008 "coffee shop moment" in New Hampshire, where Clinton's voice shook and she seemed near tears as she spoke of her goals for the country.