And she managed to deliver a defensive speech without sounding defensive.
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh delivered a defensive speech at the White House on Monday night.
Of all the faults in a defensive speech, none can top making a truth-teller of Pinocchio Balls.
That is true of human beings and is equally true of nations".A Poppy Appeal chairman would not need to make such a defensive speech today.
It was at times a defensive speech, delivered by a president who was initially criticized for pushing Israel too hard to make concessions for peace with the Palestinians.
It was an earnest, defensive speech, thin on jokes and containing just one announcement, a technical one relating to local government finance.
Strangely, even Dame Stella Rimington's bizarre and defensive speech from the chair (aptly described by Sam Jordison) now seems like the buzz of interference you get on a radio before tuning into the right station.
The outspoken Israeli president, Ezer Weizman, welcomed the pope with a blunt, at times defensive speech that instantly bore into one of the issues dividing the Vatican and the Jewish state.
And if I were in the Romney-Ryan campaign, I'd feel relieved and also a little puzzled that Clinton, who exploited so many openings last night, didn't exploit the entitlement issue as ruthlessly and sweepingly as a different, less defensive speech might have done.
"It was a defensive speech, and there is a degree of frustration in the forces that are beyond his control," said DeAnne S. Julius, the chairman of Chatham House, a research and analysis organization in London, and a former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee.
