In small circles Kohl was fascinating and a perfect host; the larger the crowd, the vaguer, weaker and paler he appeared. His gaze into TV cameras made him look helpless. When attacked, e.g. in election campaigns, he became a good fighter. But in general he was no great orator, his speeches were lengthy and verbose. Additionally, the Catholic with his Palatinate dialect, a folksy man who had culture but was simply no intellectual – to North German journalists (like from the important newspapers made in Hamburg) he just felt foreign, more than any previous CDU chairman.