It’s increasingly difficult to listen to Hillary Clinton give her speeches these days.

For one thing, there’s no poetry there.

Her opener Tuesday night in West Virginia, for instance, was an allusion to a John Denver song, for God’s sakes. (“Almost heaven,” she said.)

For another, she’s schizophrenic.

One minute she says, “I can lead this party to victory in the general election,” and the next minute she says, “I will work my heart out for the nominee of the Democratic Party to make sure we have a Democratic President.”

Her cuts at Obama, now more subtle than before, are still unkind, as when she says Democrats should elect someone “who is ready to execute the office of the Presidency.” At least this time she didn’t add her tired mantra, “on day one.”

And her repeated claim to be the “strongest” candidate, which she said four times Tuesday night, her repeated emphasis on what a fighter she is, implies that Obama just might not be tough enough for the task at hand.

“I am ready to go head-to-head with John McCain to put our vision for America up against the one he shares with President Bush,” she said. “Now, I believe our party is strong enough for this challenge. I am strong enough for it.”

Also, coming on the heels of her infamous “hardworking Americans, white Americans” comment last week, it was a little unsettling for her to say that one of the reasons she’s still in the race is for “all of the hardworking men and women who defy the odds to build a better life for themselves and their children.”

But most of all, it’s the Clinton shell game, the Clinton hustle, the constant Clinton angle-playing that is so irritating.

There she was again playing up her victories in Michigan and Florida, even though she and Obama had agreed not to campaign in those states, and Obama wasn’t even on the ballot in Michigan.

There she was again, saying that the number of delegates needed to win is now 2,209—not the 2,025 that the DNC has stipulated from the start.

All of these antics reinforce the impression that the Clintons will do anything to win.

It’s an impression that is fast freezing into a permanent smudge on their reputation.