And with regard to security matters, while Mr Saakashvili is careful to adopt a moderate tone when addressing foreign audiences, he has told his own people that the countdown to the recovery of the lost territories (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) has begun.
With many states facing big fiscal challenges, Republican governors have adopted a more moderate tone when laying out their agendas for 2015.Take Mr Walker, who has described a proposal to make Wisconsin a "right-to-work" state ie, to ban deals that make it compulsory for workers at a private company to join a union as a "distraction".
His replacement, Mr. Joyandet, has been careful to moderate his tone when speaking of African autocrats.
He is also reaching out to a wider audience by moderating his tone when needed.
There had been signs, too, of a moderate tone earlier on Wednesday when Trump met with President Enrique Peña Nieto on a surprise visit to Mexico City.
"The desire by the North Koreans to convince the world that they're in the process of developing a nuclear arsenal is nothing new," Mr. Bush said, striking a far more moderate tone than in March, when he declared that the United States would not tolerate a nuclear North Korea.
Overall, Romney's speech on Friday seemed to strike a more moderate tone than his comments immediately after the election, when he said Obama won because he gave "gifts" to black, Hispanic and young voters.
Democrats, meanwhile, used television ads to dispel Mr. Kelly's moderate tone during the campaign, using statements he had made when he ran against Ms. Giffords.
The prime minister, who was accused of moralising during his time as opposition leader when he warned that dysfunctional families were helping to create a "broken Britain", adopted a more moderate tone as he said that he was not seeking to judge people's lives.
In a gesture typical of the film's moderate tone, we see her strip down to her bra to seduce a man (after leaving her order, mind you) but when she finds true love with a woman it's depicted only with a chaste clasping of the hands and a quick kiss on the knuckles.
When they finished, it seemed to many observers that Carter had won on "substance" while Reagan, with his easygoing diffidence and moderate tone, had dispelled fears that he was the "dangerous" fanatic portrayed by Carter.
