All you had to do was look at Senator Hatch's response to the President's four-minute speech to see why they felt as they did.
But in a subdued four-minute speech, Mr. Clinton came nowhere near to doing that.
Nor did the senators complain at the opportunity for six four-minute speeches around lunchtime.
In preparation for the competition, each unit prepares three four-minute speeches in response to formal prompts.
Bill Clinton looked exhausted and sounded as defiant as a regretful man could in his four-minute speech last night.
A three-and-a-half to four-minute long prepared speech is delivered.
The four hours of testimony constituted a performance radically different from the four-minute speech to the nation Mr. Clinton made later that same day.
After crossfire, first team's second speaker gives a four-minute rebuttal speech.
Then, the second speaker of the second team gives a four-minute constructive speech following this same format.
"On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance," he said in a four-minute speech from the Oval Office.