Voters care about expectations

As we countdown the minutes before the New Hampshire Democratic debate tonight, political analyst Chuck Todd makes an excellent point about voter expectations:

But judging a candidate based on expectations isn't something justreporters do, but voters do as well. Actually, if you think about youreveryday life, you make judgments constantly based on whether apreconceived notion about someone (or some movie or some food) was trueor not. "Frog legs aren't as gross as I thought" or "For all thebuildup, that movie sure was a disappointment."

If Hillary Clinton is thought of as cold and non-human but comes across as thoughtful and warm, that will impact the opinions of voters.  Usually you will not see a significant change in polling numbers unless candidates are able to surprise people.  Tonight, Edwards and Obama will look to do just that.